Seeking the source of solar eruptions
Abstract
Eruptions of particles, radiation, and plasma from the Sun can impact a range of vital technologies on Earth and in near Earth space via space weather. There is an increasing need to provide accurate space weather forecasts to a variety of end users, as society becomes ever more dependent on technology and space exploration moves further away from Earth. However, solar eruption prediction is still in its infancy, and there are many research efforts underway to try to improve forecast accuracy to rival terrestrial weather forecasting. Understanding the processes and sources involved in the solar eruptions that cause these extreme space weather events is key to improving predictive capability. There are still many interesting unanswered scientific questions regarding what are the important features on the surface and in the atmosphere of the Sun that might trigger big eruptions. This proposed project builds on highly successful efforts to apply advanced terrestrial weather forecasting techniques to current eruption predictions. Statistical analysis of eruptions and their solar sources will be undertaken, before artificial intelligence techniques employed to study these sources in depth. Novel computing methods will combine state of the art models with the highest resolution spacecraft observations of the Sun to better predict when solar eruptions will occur. This will significantly advance our scientific understanding of the source of solar eruptions and will be applied to operational space weather forecasting.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 14, 2022
- Source ID
- FA95501917010
Entities
People
- Sophie A Murray
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Trinity College Dublin
- United States Air Force