Real-time Early Flare Alert System for the First Sounding Rocket Solar Flare Campaign

@article{vievering2026realtime,
  title = {{Real-time Early Flare Alert System for the First Sounding Rocket Solar Flare Campaign}},
  author = {Juliana T. Vievering and Marianne Peterson and Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas and A. Gordon Emslie and Paolo Massa and Andrew Jones and Yoshiaki Sato and Lindsay Glesener and Sabrina Savage and Phillip Chamberlin and Kristopher Cooper and Jake Boils and Simon Shepard and Rita Borelli and Noriyuki Narukage and Kanya Kusano and Yumi Bamba and Genevieve Vigil and Athanasios Pantazides and Vicki L. Herde and Daniel Ryan and Orlando M. Romeo and Amy Winebarger and Katharine K. Reeves and P. S. Athiray and Robert W. Walsh and Ndifreke Okon Nyah and Ryan Milligan and Yixian Zhang},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Real-time Early Flare Alert System for the First Sounding Rocket Solar Flare Campaign
AU  - Juliana T. Vievering
AU  - Marianne Peterson
AU  - Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas
AU  - A. Gordon Emslie
AU  - Paolo Massa
AU  - Andrew Jones
AU  - Yoshiaki Sato
AU  - Lindsay Glesener
AU  - Sabrina Savage
AU  - Phillip Chamberlin
AU  - Kristopher Cooper
AU  - Jake Boils
AU  - Simon Shepard
AU  - Rita Borelli
AU  - Noriyuki Narukage
AU  - Kanya Kusano
AU  - Yumi Bamba
AU  - Genevieve Vigil
AU  - Athanasios Pantazides
AU  - Vicki L. Herde
AU  - Daniel Ryan
AU  - Orlando M. Romeo
AU  - Amy Winebarger
AU  - Katharine K. Reeves
AU  - P. S. Athiray
AU  - Robert W. Walsh
AU  - Ndifreke Okon Nyah
AU  - Ryan Milligan
AU  - Yixian Zhang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd
AB  - Understanding when and where a solar flare will occur continues to be an important goal for the heliophysics community, relevant to fundamental research, coordinated flare observations, and space weather applications. In 2024 April, the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI-4) and High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C Flare) carried out NASA’s first coordinated sounding rocket solar flare campaign at the Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) in Fairbanks, Alaska, for the purpose of performing a triggered launch to observe a large (>C5 class) solar flare with flare-optimized instrumentation. For this campaign, we developed and successfully implemented a novel real-time early flare alert system that leverages low-latency solar imaging and irradiance measurements of the early stages of flares to establish when a large flare is imminent, predict the remaining duration, and identify the flare location in real time. By providing actionable flare nowcasts, this optimized collection of tools/visualizations informed real-time launch decisions and enabled the successful launch of the FOXSI-4 and Hi-C Flare experiments to observe a long-duration M-class flare. We detail the implementation of this early flare alert system, its operational validation during the launch, and the lessons learned to inform future flare monitoring systems and solar flare observing campaigns.
SN  - 1538-4357
SN  - 0004-637X
ER  -