SolarConfluxRESEARCH WORKSPACE
HELIOPHYSICS / OBSERVATION PLANNING

Find the moments that align.

Explore the geometry between worlds. Discover windows for coordinated observations.

Runs in your browser
TRAJECTORY EXPLORER

A shared view of the Sun

HCI · XY projection

Bundled example preview · January 2025

SELECTED SAMPLE
Sun-centered perspective

Positions projected onto the solar equatorial plane. Distances in astronomical units (AU).

Dotted: Parker spiral

Ballistic backmapping to the source surface at 400 km/s, shown for the bodies matched by a Parker window at this sample.

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ALIGNED AT THIS SAMPLE
SCREENING RESULTS

Alignment windows —

Choose your parameters, then find alignments.
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Candidate windows, with context. These are approximate geometric alignments. Parker screening does not establish magnetic connectivity. Event boundaries follow the sampling cadence.

What the screening tells you

SolarConflux identifies candidate observation windows from heliocentric longitudes and optional latitude limits. It is a research prototype.

Geometry & grouping

Cone compares circular longitude separation. Opposition targets 180°; quadrature targets 90°. Groups share an anchor body: every pair in a multi-body group does not necessarily satisfy the condition. At least two bodies besides the Sun are needed, since a separation needs two observers. The readout under the plot names the windows containing the displayed sample, so entering and leaving one is explicit.

Parker convention

Source longitude = body longitude + Ω × (radius − source radius) / wind speed. The rotation period is 25.38 days, source radius is 1,740,000 km, and footpoint tolerance is 5°. One uniform wind speed is used for all bodies. The Parker modes also require the two latitudes to agree within the angular tolerance, so widening that tolerance loosens them.

The dotted curve traces this mapping from a body inward to the source surface, drawn only for bodies that a Parker or cone-Parker window matched at the displayed sample. It is a ballistic flow path under one constant wind speed, not a modelled magnetic field line.

Time & provenance

Times are UTC. Durations span the first to last matching sample; a single-sample event has zero duration. Boundaries are not interpolated. Apart from that dotted curve, the chart shows only retrieved samples and the straight lines joining them; it draws no orbits or field lines. Imported provenance is supplied by the file and is not independently verified.

A body whose ephemeris begins or ends inside the requested period contributes only the covered part and takes no part in the geometry outside it, so an alignment involving it ends when its coverage does. Such a body is named in the run feedback and in the exported metadata, and the explorer marks it where it has no sample rather than drawing it at the wrong time.

Browser operation

Live requests send the selected body names, UTC periods and chosen ephemeris backend to the SolarConflux retrieval service, which reads either JPL Horizons or SPICE kernels. Under SPICE where available the backend used for each body is recorded in the exported metadata, so a mixed run states which body came from where. Imported files stay in your browser. Python screening runs here using the pinned Pyodide runtime. Run history stores trajectories, settings and results locally on this browser; download backups before clearing browser data. The Sun is displayed as the HCI origin and is excluded from alignment comparisons.

Full scientific validation notes ↗