The Study of Solar Proton Events Characteristics in Solar Cycle 24 Using Principal Component Analysis Firshanda Alvyanita (a*), Dhani Herdiwijaya (a), Santana Despon Solina (a), Lingga Hanum (a)
a) Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Bandung Institute of Technology
Jalan Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
*firshandaalvyanita[at]gmail.com
Abstract
Solar Proton Events (SPEs) are marked by flux increases from protons in energetic solar particles (SEPs). Energetic solar particles are produced through acceleration mechanisms. In existing studies, these acceleration mechanisms of energetic solar particles are thought to be associated with eruptive phenomena on the Sun, specifically solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). SPEs have a significant impact on space weather, potentially causing geomagnetic storms on Earth. Therefore, it is necessary to study the parameters of flares and CMEs that can influence SPEs. This can be used to understand the origin of energetic particles, their acceleration mechanisms, and their propagation in interplanetary space towards Earth. In this study, an SPE dataset from solar cycle 24 (2009-2019) consisting of 99 SPEs with a maximum proton flux greater than 1 pfu was used. This dataset includes both SPE parameter data and phenomena associated with SPEs (flares and CMEs). From that, a statistical analysis was carried out using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the parameters of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to investigate their correlation with the parameter of SPEs. The solar flares and CMEs parameters used in this study consist of six variables: flare soft X-ray flux, flare duration, flare longitude, CME speed, CME angular width, and CME position angle. The results of this study showed that CME speed is the parameter most correlated with SPE parameters, especially the maximum proton flux.
Keywords: Solar Proton Events- Flares- Coronal Mass Ejections- Principal Component Analysis
