SHINE 2026 Sessions

William Ashfield: Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Ryan French: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Juraj Lorincik: Bay Area Environmental Institute (BAERI)

The CSHKP model of solar flares, published between 1964 and 1976, turns 50 years old this year. Serving as the organizing framework for solar flare phenomena during this time, the standard model is inherently limited: restricted to two dimensions and built on a set of implicit axioms ‚   symmetric energy deposition, planar current sheet geometry, eruptive flux rope‚  that are treated as universal. However, recent observations increasingly reveal flare behavior that violates the standard model, including the absence of null-points, multi-ribbon topologies, non-eruptive sheared arcades, persistent footpoint asymmetries, and fine-scale structure that highlights the intrinsic 3D nature of these events. 

This session asks what the next-generation ‚ standard flare model should look like, with an emphasis on 3D magnetic structure and energy release. Central to this is identifying which phenomena are truly universal (reconnection as the energy release mechanism, ribbons as maps of that process) and which have been over-generalized (symmetric energy input, 2D current sheet geometry, eruptive behavior). We invite contributions that test these axioms observationally, confront models with the full diversity of flare phenomena, and identify the measurements still needed to build a more complete 3D framework.

1. What physical properties are universal to all flares, and which reflect specific magnetic configurations or event types?
2. What recent evidence points to the nature of 3D reconnection and energy release processes in flares?
3. What future observations are needed to validate or discriminate between candidate flare model frameworks?

Elizabeth Wraback (HAO/NSF NCAR), Samaiyah Farid (Alabama A&M University)

Coronal cavities are density-depleted regions in the solar atmosphere surrounding prominences. These structures can last entire solar cycles, never erupting, or erupt into CMEs, making them important CME precursors. Spectropolarimetric observations by CoMP/UCoMP have shed insight into the magnetic structure and, when combined with forward modeling, suggest the pre-eruptive structure of the CME is a flux rope. However, limited observations do not allow us to fully discriminate between flux rope and sheared arcade, leading to the need for future observatories, like COSMO, and combined modeling efforts.

What can coronal cavities and their current observations tell us about the initial magnetic structure of eruptions?

What makes coronal cavities quiescent versus eruptive? 

What observations are needed to discriminate between different magnetic field structures?

Cecilia Mac Cormack (1,2), Abril Sahade(1) — 1- Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, USA — 2- The Catholic University of America, DC, USA

Solar eruptions release large amounts of solar plasma and more intense magnetic fields into the interplanetary medium than the surrounding environment. They are observed across multiple stages: in the lower corona as flares and/or prominence eruptions, in the upper corona as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in white-light images, and later through in-situ measurements that detect the arrival of the associated magnetic flux rope at a spacecraft. Despite these diverse observations, the  hidden region  in which CMEs evolve from structured solar eruptions into large-scale interplanetary transients interacting with the solar wind remains poorly observed. This missing link continues to limit our ability to connect remote and in-situ signatures into a unified physical picture of the CME life cycle.

In this new era of solar observatories (e.g. Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe, PUNCH), we count with more information than ever to increase our understanding of the evolutionary process of CMEs. To understand the complete evolution of the CMEs we need to not only combine the observations but to explain them under a common theoretical frame. Combining observations and modeling uncover a new path for a deeper understanding of CME evolution, their internal structure and interaction with the solar wind.

How is the life story of a CME in the observationally  hidden region?
 
Which tools do we currently use to bridge that gap? 
 
How the new observations (remote and in situ) of the inner heliosphere and/or models can leverage our understanding of the CME life story?

Shea Hess Webber (Stanford), Krishnendu Mandal (NJIT), Oana Vesa (Stanford)

Understanding the global magnetic field is key to enhancing heliospheric models, and accurate forecasting and prediction of space weather. The solar dynamo generates, stores, emerges and transports the solar magnetic field, but the mechanisms governing these processes are not fully understood. Because the surface is the inner boundary for the rest of the heliophysics field, this incomplete understanding impedes modeling and forecasting efforts. Without clarifying the dynamo process, progress towards more accurate coronal and solar wind modeling, and space weather forecasting at Earth, the Moon, Mars and beyond, will remain constrained. We aim to foster discussion that connects different physical processes, incorporates ideas from the solar magnetism “user community,” and considers downwind impacts.

1) What are the key mechanisms for emerging flux from the deep interior to the surface, both at the local and global scale?

2) How do convection, turbulence, and atmospheric dynamics affect flux emergence, transport, and diffusion?

3) What are feasible timescales of prediction of emergence?

Bin Chen (New Jersey Institute of Technology), Peijin Zhang (New Jersey Institute of Technology), Sam Schonfeld (  Air Force Research Laboratory)

The next decade will see the rise of “Large-N” radio interferometers—arrays featuring a large number of antennas—including the operational OVRO-LWA, MWA, and LOFAR, alongside the highly anticipated next-generation solar radio telescope Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope (FASR), and the general-purpose Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). While these observatories will offer unprecedented imaging fidelity, dynamic range, and resolution, their greatest impact on the SHINE community may be a shift in accessibility.

In the past, using radio data required highly specialized interferometry expertise and months of processing raw visibility datasets one at a time. That era may be ending. To handle large data volumes, fully automated calibration and imaging pipelines are required to process the raw data and produce science-ready, radio spectropolarimetric image “hypercubes.” The primary goal of this interactive session is to explore how to prepare for this new era. We encourage the sharing of success stories, as well as challenges and caveats, when producing and utilizing these data products for science. We will also brainstorm ways to help non-radio experts seamlessly integrate radio observations into their research.

1. How will the shift from raw visibility processing to directly analyzing the multi-dimensional radio image products transform the broader SHINE community’s approach to heliophysics and space weather research?

2. What physical constraints can non-radio experts extract from the current and future radio datasets to advance their distinct science questions?

3. What tools or training resources (including AI) does the community need to ensure these radio products are truly accessible and useful to researchers without much background in radio interferometry?

Arpit Kumar Shrivastav (Southwest Research Institute), Yeimy Rivera (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian), Prateek Mayank (University of Colorado, Boulder)

The solar wind is a fundamental component of the heliosphere, yet quantifying how contributions from different source regions collectively determine its global properties remains a major challenge. The unprecedented proximity of Parker Solar Probe and the multi-instrument capabilities of Solar Orbiter allow us to observe the transition from a structured corona to a dynamic heliosphere. Despite this progress, linking coronal processes to their in-situ signatures remains a difficult task, thus limiting our understanding of solar wind origin. This session aims to explore the solar wind as a multi-source, global phenomenon that demands robust magnetic connectivity between remote sensing and in-situ observations and improved numerical modeling for a comprehensive understanding.

1. What is the relative contribution of different source regions to the global solar wind and their associated processes?
 
2. What are the fundamental physical and technical limitations that prevent robust magnetic connectivity between remote-sensing and in-situ observations?
 
3. How can we better utilize in-situ and remote sensing observations to improve numerical models to reproduce the observed global evolution of the solar wind?

Christina Kay (JHU APL), Erika Palmerio (PSI), Robin Colaninno (NRL), Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla (GSFC)

The corona and heliosphere form a coupled, interconnected system with a dynamic transition region between them, yet they have historically been studied as distinct domains. Solar Cycle 25 has ushered in a new generation of heliophysics missions—including Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, PROBA-3, and PUNCH—that, together with well-established observations from near 1 au, are overcoming these limitations. This synergy of observations provides unprecedented perspectives on both the large-scale structure and transient phenomena of the solar wind, including the critical coronal–heliospheric transition region. In particular, these datasets are advancing our understanding of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their evolution, while also revealing new complexities in the corona–heliosphere connection. This session focuses on integrating observations and models to explore the coupled corona–heliosphere system, identify remaining knowledge gaps, and highlight emerging insights as well as exciting unknowns in our understanding of the Sun’s dynamic environment.

Sue Lepri (University of Michigan)

The previous understanding, based on observations from Ulysses and ACE in the past decades, indicates that the total open magnetic flux of the Sun outside the streamer-belt region remains constant across multiple solar minimum conditions. The total open magnetic flux is defined as the product of BrR^2 and the solid angle occupied by open-flux regions outside the HCS‚  streamer belt. One of the implications of this conservation is that  the variations in BrR^2 arise from changes in the solid angle of the region outside the streamer belt, or equivalently, from variations in the width of the HCS‚  streamer region.
 
At heliocentric distances far from the tips of the HCS‚  streamer loops, the solid angle of the region outside the streamer belt is nearly constant. As a result, BrR^2 is expected to remain approximately a constant value, as observed at 1 AU. This constant is 3.67 (nT AU^2) as given by Ulysses and ACE observations. Recent PSP/FIELDS observations (results provided by S. D. Bale), however, reveal that when the heliocentric distance is less than about 0.2 AU, BrR^2 outside the HCS‚  streamer regions is reduced by about 20% from this constant value as at 1 AU. These findings suggest that open magnetic flux measurements from PSP encounters may have important implications for estimating the width of the HCS‚  streamer belt. More broadly, investigations of the Sun‚  open magnetic flux at different heliocentric distances can provide critical insights into the evolution of solar magnetic fields and improve our understanding and prediction of solar cycle variability.

1.   What global physical processes on the Sun is governed by the behavior of the magnetic open flux

2.  How can we use the magnetic field measurements from the PSP encounters to interpret the topology of the HCS-streamer belt?

3.  Based on the solar wind and magnetic field observations we have for the recent solar cycles, what can we do to interpret and predict the solar cycles?

Nishtha Sachdeva (Univ. of Michigan) Prateek Mayank (SWx TREC Univ. of Colorado) Dinesha Hegde (Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville)

Extreme space weather events such as unusually strong geomagnetic storms are often driven not by isolated coronal mass ejections (CMEs), but by sequences of eruptions whose interactions amplify their heliospheric and geoeffective consequences. Despite recent progress, identifying reliable observational signatures of such extreme, multi-CME events remains challenging due to projection effects, limited coronal and heliospheric coverage, and ambiguities in associating solar sources with in-situ impacts. Building on the SHINE 2025 session on interacting CMEs, this session aims to streamline the discussion by focusing on two key aspects: (1) observational identifiers of extreme CME events in the solar corona and in the inner heliosphere, and (2) the evolution of these events through CME‚  CME and CME‚  solar-wind (CME-SW) interactions.

This session will focus on the following core science questions related to extreme events associated with interacting CMEs:

1. What key observational signatures can serve as early indicators of extreme, multi-CME events? (e.g., eruption timing, coronal magnetic complexity, signatures of CME preconditioning, shock formation)

2. How do complex CME‚  CME and CME‚  SW interactions modify the heliospheric evolution of CMEs, including their kinematics, shocks, and magnetic structure?

Talwinder Singh (GSU); Evangelia Samara (NASA/CUA); Ronald Caplan (PSI); Dinesha Hegde (UAH)

Data-driven heliospheric MHD modeling remains one of the best methods to characterize and forecast space weather (SW) conditions in the inner heliosphere. Over the past few years, time-dependent solar wind driving has become increasingly prevalent, with the community moving toward it as a more reliable approach. This session will address  the central challenge of integrating observational data into time-dependent solar wind models while preserving physical consistency and predictive skill. We will discuss how well current time-dependent modeling approaches reproduce the variability observed both in situ and remotely, including transient structures. A key subject is identifying where uncertainties arise (from observations, data-assimilation/conditioning choices, model physics, numerical methods, and initialization), and discussing practical strategies to quantify and mitigate these uncertainties for more reliable space-weather applications.

1. What are the most effective strategies for integrating observational data into time-dependent solar wind models?

2. How well can current time-dependent solar wind models capture the variability observed in-situ/remotely?

3. Where do the uncertainties in the modeling results arise?

Norberto Romanelli (UMD/NASA GSFC), Cecilia MacCormack (CUA/NASA GSFC), Eleni Nikou (NRC Research Associate, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory), Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla (NASA GSFC)

The evolution of large-scale solar structures across the solar system, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), high-speed solar wind streams, and co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs), has been extensively studied using a variety of observations from space instruments and simulation models. While these efforts have significantly advanced our understanding of these structures, a more comprehensive approach is still needed to better discern the processes that influence their evolution as they propagate through the inner heliosphere. As these structures move outward from the Sun, they undergo complex interactions with the solar wind and magnetic fields, ultimately influencing their effects on planetary environments. Understanding the physical processes that drive the evolution of these solar transients, both within 1 AU and beyond, is critical for improving space weather forecasting at Earth and Mars. This session will address key questions regarding the physical mechanisms governing the evolution of these solar structures and their implications for planetary space weather.

Question 1: What are the main sources of uncertainty in describing and tracking the evolution of CMEs within 1 au- observational constraints, model assumptions, or their coupling?

Question 2: How do Earth-validated prediction methods perform when applied to Mars, and what are their main limitations?

Question 3: How does the Martian environment respond to space weather driven by CMEs, and how does this response vary with CME properties and configuration?

Ricky Egeland (NASA JSC), James Ryan (UNH), Nariaki Nitta (LMSAL), Pierre-Simon Mangeard (Deleware), Claudio Corti (University of Hawaii, NASA GSFC CCMC),  Kathryn Whitman (KBR, NASA JSC SRAG)

There has been recent interest in the capability to understand and predict extreme solar energetic particle events. After a generally quiet solar cycle, two very recent events in Solar Cycle 25, 2025-11-11 (Veteran’s Day Event) and 2026-01-18 (MLK Day Event), were both extreme in very different ways. The Veteran’s Day Event (GLE 77) showed a very hard spectrum with a strong energetic storm particle phase that was observed even at >500 MeV. Neutron monitors up to very high cutoffs observed the event within minutes following the source eruption on the Sun. The MLK day event was associated with a strong Forbush decrease and was the third highest intensity SEP event measured by GOES in the >10 MeV channel since 1986, but had only a very weak enhancement at high energies. This session aims to explore what the measurements from our current heliophysics and space weather fleet and neutron monitors on the ground can tell us about these events. Can we explain what conditions and solar and heliospheric phenomena lead to their extreme natures and how might this apply to extreme events in general? How can we develop predictive models for extreme SEP events? We invite attendees to bring measurements, analyses, interpretations, modelling results and questions for a lively discussion about these challenge events.

Are extreme events drawn from the same distribution of associated properties of active regions, flares, and CMEs, and background solar wind as small events, or is there something peculiar about them? 

What is the role of magnetic connectivity, interplanetary CMEs, previous solar and heliospheric activity, and the presence of strong energetic storm particle (ESP) phases during the passage of an Earth-bound CME?  

What was the nature of the impulsive spike and the evolution of the subsequent anisotropy of the late phase of GLE77, until the arrival of a CME?

Campaign Events: 

Participants are solicited to bring data and simulations of all related phenomena (active regions, corona, solar wind, flares, CMEs, particles) for the challenge events in order to drive conversation and interpretation of the events.

2025-11-11 (Veteran’s Day Event)
2026-01-18 (MLK Day Event)

Manuel Cuesta (Princeton University), Richa Jain (Princeton University), Gabriel Muro (California Institute of Technology), Zigong Xu (California Institute of Technology)

In this SHINE session, we ask how are different particle populations injected into acceleration regions throughout the inner heliosphere, what distinguishes their source conditions, and how do properties of a coronal mass ejection (CME) affect the geo-effectiveness of a solar event? IMAP‚  unique capabilities at 1 au captures a mixture of solar wind ions and electrons, suprathermal particles, and interstellar pickup ions, yet the pathways by which these populations transition from thermal to suprathermal energies remain poorly constrained. Understanding whether injection is dominated by turbulence, reconnection, shocks, or boundary-layer processes is crucial. Framing the problem in this way invites discussion of how IMAP can provide closure on competing mechanisms by leveraging composition, pitch-angle structure, and spectral signatures. Our goal is to understand how these effects can unfold through the many perspectives that IMAP offers, as well as examine the spatiotemporal structures when combined with other spacecraft at or within 1 au. We also invite discussion surrounding simulations to help explain unique properties of particle acceleration and transport observed in situ.

1.  Can we quantify the energization of pickup ions and determine its contribution to the acceleration of suprathermal particle populations?

2.  How can the L1 spacecraft fleet improve our determination of the mesoscale structure of the solar wind and large-scale transients?

Parisa Mostafavi (Johns Hopkins University APL), Christina Cohen (California Institute of Technology), Savvas Raptis (Johns Hopkins University APL)

Shock waves are a fundamental plasma process throughout the heliosphere, driving energy dissipation, particle acceleration, and large-scale heliospheric structure. In the inner heliosphere, shocks associated with solar eruptions, stream interaction regions, and planetary bow shocks strongly influence solar energetic particle (SEP) production and transport. As shocks propagate outward, their structure and dynamics evolve and change dramatically as solar wind conditions change and the influence of energetic pickup ions (PUIs) and anomalous cosmic rays (ACRs) increases in the outer heliosphere. Recent observations from Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, near-Earth missions, New Horizons, and Voyager, together with advances in theory and modeling, now enable shocks and energetic particles to be studied across an unprecedented range of heliocentric distances. This session aims to bring together the full heliospheric community working on shocks and energetic particles associated with them into a single, discussion-focused forum.

1.    What physical processes govern the formation, structure, and evolution of shocks throughout the diverse environments of the heliosphere?

2.  How do shocks regulate energy conversion, particle acceleration, and plasma heating across the heliosphere under different plasma conditions? and how do these mechanisms couple with background interplanetary turbulence and transport processes?

3.  What are the key observational and theoretical challenges in understanding heliospheric shocks and energetic particles, and how can they be addressed?

Prateek Mayank (SWx TREC University of Colorado); Nishtha Sachdeva (University of Michigan); Aatiya Ali (Georgia State University)

Machine Learning (ML) is increasingly used in space weather research, with growing success across forecasting, classification, and surrogate modeling. Despite this rapid adoption, the community lacks widely accepted guidelines for model design, evaluation, reproducibility, and interpretation. This gap motivates the need for focused community-driven discussions. This session aims to move beyond isolated ML applications and address a central question: How do we evolve from individual ML successes toward a unified, trustworthy, and reproducible framework for space weather prediction?

1. What ML applications have demonstrated robust and reproducible performance in space weather forecasting?  

2. How should metrics and model architectures be chosen to match specific space weather problems?  

3. What practices should be adopted for benchmarking, validation, and interpretation of ML models?

Weihao Liu (University of Michigan), Claudio Corti (University of Hawaii, NASA GSFC CCMC), Kathryn Whitman (KBR, NASA JSC SRAG), Ashraf Moradi (University of Arizona)

Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter are taking measurements in new heliospheric regimes, while numerous spacecraft throughout the heliosphere, e.g., the STEREO satellites and spacecraft at Mars, have now accrued measurements for many years. This makes now an opportune time to revisit the long-standing problems of solar energetic particle (SEP) acceleration and transport, considering the full energy spectrum from keV to GeV. The first part of the session will focus on acceleration mechanisms and inconsistencies in current explanations. The second part of the session will turn to particle transport, including cross-field diffusion and drift effects, and the impact of heliospheric structures on transport outcomes.

What do new multi-point observations and analyses tell us about SEP acceleration and   transport processes? 

How do these processes apply to particles across the full energy spectrum, including hundreds of MeV to GeV?  

How do other heliospheric phenomena, like solar wind structure, interplanetary CMEs, or previous eruptive activity impact these SEP processes?

Nour E. Raouafi – Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723; Arik Posner – SMD Heliophysics Division, NASA Headquarters

Understanding how the solar corona is heated to millions of degrees and how the solar wind and energetic particles are accelerated near the Sun remains one of the most fundamental challenges in heliophysics. Over the past decade, transformative observations from Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, DKIST, SDO, and complementary ground- and space-based observatories have provided unprecedented access to the key physical regimes where these processes operate. These measurements have revealed complex, multi-scale dynamics‚  including waves, turbulence, reconnection, fine-scale structuring, and direct links between coronal structures and the nascent solar wind‚  that were previously inaccessible. Together with advances in theory and numerical modeling, these results have significantly narrowed the range of viable mechanisms. The central question now is whether this progress is sufficient to move from competing explanations toward closure‚  and what observational, theoretical, and modeling gaps must still be addressed to fully understand coronal heating and near-Sun acceleration processes.

Given recent advances from Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, DKIST, and related observatories, what key physical processes are now established as drivers of coronal heating, and what critical evidence is still missing to reach closure?
 
How have near-Sun observations reshaped our understanding of solar wind acceleration, and what remaining observational or theoretical gaps must be closed to fully explain the origin and properties of the solar wind?
 
What progress has been made in identifying the mechanisms responsible for particle energization and transport near the Sun, and what is required to achieve a predictive understanding of these processes across the heliosphere?

Michael Terres (CfA), Kris Klein (University of Arizona), Tamar Ervin (Univ. California Berkeley), Srijan Bharati Das (Center for Astrophysics)

Dissipation and damping are fundamental processes by which free energy is transferred from electromagnetic fluctuations to particle species. Despite decades of study, the specific mechanisms driving this energy exchange at ion and electron kinetic scales remain fiercely debated. This session addresses a growing dichotomy in our understanding of the near-Sun solar wind. On the one hand, observations in the low-beta inner heliosphere reveal a prevalence of Ion Cyclotron Waves (ICWs), supported by recent theoretical frameworks such as the “helicity barrier,” which suggest that resonant processes are the primary driver of heating. On the other hand, analyses of fluctuations in the sub-Alfvénic region indicate that stochastic heating rates are consistent with the observed turbulent cascade. This presents a fundamental conflict: does the turbulent cascade stall and generate resonant modes, or does it proceed to drive non-resonant stochastic heating?

In this SHINE Session, we seek to address the following three science questions:

1.) How do evolving heliospheric conditions modulate the dominant pathway for energy conversion: is it driven by the damping of the turbulent cascade (via resonance or stochasticity), or by the relaxation of locally generated kinetic instabilities (driven by beams and drifts)?

2.) Can modern analysis techniques definitively distinguish between signatures of resonant and non-resonant heating mechanisms?

3.) Do the ion cyclotron waves observed in the inner heliosphere result from a “helicity barrier” blocking the turbulent cascade, or are they generated locally by kinetic microinstabilities with distinct sources of free energy?

Lingling Zhao (University of Alabama in Huntsville); Trevor Bowen (University of California, Berkeley); Yan Yang (University of Delaware)

Throughout the heliosphere, turbulence mediates the transfer of energy from large-scale MHD motions to kinetic scales. Observations from Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter show that this cascade is highly intermittent, organized by coherent structures, current sheets, and transient phenomena such as magnetic switchbacks. Intermittent structures are also identified beyond 1 au and in the interstellar medium by Voyagers. These features can regulate kinetic-scale wave activity and the energization of suprathermal particle populations. This session will explore the origin, evolution, and dissipation of solar wind turbulence, and how multi-scale structures and kinetic processes shape particle distributions and energization. By integrating observations with theoretical and numerical modeling, the session aims to advance a comprehensive understanding of how turbulence shapes the heliospheric plasma.

1, How does turbulence evolve across various heliospheric boundaries, including the Alfvén critical surface, heliospheric termination shock, and heliopause?

2, How and where does the cascade transition from MHD to kinetic scales in the solar wind and local interstellar medium?

3, How does turbulent reconnection regulate kinetic waves and suprathermal particle energization in the heliosphere?