The Solar Activity Monitor NETwork (SAMNet)

The Solar Activity Monitor Network (SAMNet) is a UK-led international network of planned individual Solar Activity Magnetic Monitor (SAMM) stations. SAMNet, at its full capacity, will continuously monitor the Sun's atmospheric magnetic field from the photosphere to chromosphere in order to protect our technosphere from adverse space-weather events in the form of solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

The monitoring of the solar atmospheric magnetic field is unique and novel as no other ground- or space-based system exists yet with this crucial purpose. The question is not anymore whether, but when such hazardous events will impact the Earth, causing potentially extreme setbacks on timescales of years to decades, as outlined e.g. by the UK Govt. National Risk Register and the US Dept. of Homeland Security's National Space Weather Strategy Plan.

Here, we wish to improve forecasting capabilities to be more economic (i.e. at much reduced costs) on timescales of days (that is desired by industry). Therefore one needs line-of-sight magnetic field data at lower solar atmospheric (e.g. chromospheric) heights and with a more cost-effective design than currently available.

We propose a step forward to develop i) an optimally designed Solar Activity Magnetic Monitor prototype at much-reduced costs by developing a miniaturised magneto-optical filter (MOF) ii) to be implemented it a SAMNet node stations for the measurement of lower solar atmospheric chromospheric magnetic fields that are needed to predict the onset of flares and CMEs with high precision.