Proton Flare Project: Introduction and Summary

Extract

All contributions presented at the Friday morning session concerned results of the Proton Flare Project (PFP), which was organized by the IAU Commission 10 under the sponsorship of the IQSY Committee, from May 1 to September 30, 1966. As explained by Z. Švestka in his introductory talk, this project had four main aims:

1. (1) To observe proton flares shortly after the minimum of the solar activity, when, on the rising part of the solar cycle, some proton flares already appear, but not too many of them, so that the individual proton flare phenomena are fairly isolated. This makes it easy to study all the effects of such a proton flare in the interplanetary space and in the Earth's surroundings, and particularly, it allows a detailed study of the isolated active region, in which the proton flare appears.

2. (2) To get some practical experience in the forecasts of proton flares and verify the reliability and the practical use of them.

3. (3) With the aid of these forecasts, to give to the solar and geophysical observatories and to the launching sites the possibility to get prepared for the coming event. It was hoped that in this way one might get very detailed observations of the proton-flare active region, of the proton flare itself, and of its effects in the interplanetary space and in the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere.