Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Supercomputer Models Sun's Corona Dynamics

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the waiting-for-the-vogons dept.

gihan_ripper writes "Researchers from San Diego are using supercomputers to accurately predict the shape of the Sun's corona, based on magnetic field data from the photosphere. It is hoped that this model will enable us to predict Coronal Mass Ejections. When CMEs reach the Earth, they produce geomagnetic storms and can wreak havoc with communcations, GPS, and power networks. In the decade or so, the researchers hope to be able to predict CME collisions with the Earth and determine their impact."

2 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Incredible videos by caryw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    CME's produce some incredible video when they hit our sun-pointed satellites. If you haven't seen them I highly recommend checking out NASA's "Best Of SOHO Movies" for a better idea of what these things are capable of.

    http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/bestofsoho/Movies/m ovies2.html
    --
    Northern Virginia? Forums and Arrest/Ticket Database. Seeking additions to the (new) wiki

  2. Re:Sounds like trying to predict the weather by kozumik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > it seems unlikely that we will ever accurately predict these events. Chaos has already doomed weather forcasters

    Let me guess, you heard a butterfly can cause a hurricaine due to chaos theory right? :rolleyes

    It depends what you mean by "accurately" I guess. If you mean predictions with high probability several days in advance, yes that's doable. As you may recall we're already predicting hurricaine formation and movement days to a week or more in advance now, with a decent level of accuracy, and getting better all the time.

    Global forcasting is already able to predict micro-climate changes months and even years in advance on a resolution of only several miles due to shifting weather patterns on a global/continential scale.

    If weather was truly chaotic, i.e. if the total of all buterflys and other tiny variables made for completly unpredictable weather, then such predictions wouldn't be possible. Obviously the weather is not as chaotic as many HS professors have cliamed in that famous example. For that matter we wouldn't likely see big stable spots on Venus or have predictble trade winds here on earth, or all sorts of other fairly predictable features.

    From monitoring the globe via satellite for things like ocean temps, and with many sensors for wind speed, forecasters construct fluid dynamic simulations which make it possible to predict smaller and smaller weather patterns further into the future, with increasing accuracy, butterflys or no.