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Before a total solar eclipse crossed North America<\/a> on April 8, 2024, scientists at Predictive Science Inc. of San Diego aimed to foresee<\/a> what the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, the corona, would look like during totality.<\/p>\n The predictions help researchers understand the accuracy of their models of the Sun\u2019s corona, which extends along its magnetic field. A solar eclipse offers a rare opportunity to view the entire corona from Earth, guiding research into how its energy can cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt technology on Earth and in space.<\/p>\n The researchers used the Aitken, Electra, and Pleiades supercomputers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility<\/a>, located at the agency\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley. With near-real-time data from NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory<\/a> and ESA\u2019s (the European Space Agency) and NASA\u2019s Solar Orbiter<\/a>, they created a dynamic model of the corona. The team\u2019s model accurately predicted several details, including long streamers in the upper and lower left side of the image, but the streamers\u2019 locations are slightly misaligned when compared with real images<\/a>. This is likely because some new activity on the far side of the Sun, which affected the appearance of the corona, wasn\u2019t yet seen and couldn\u2019t be incorporated in the model. Once it was, the model more closely matched observational photos of the corona.<\/p>\n Recognizing that the corona is inherently complex and difficult to predict during solar maximum, Cooper Downs, a research scientist at Predictive Science, said, \u201cWe\u2019re really thrilled with this simulation. It really has a lot of scientific consequences that I think we\u2019ll be exploring for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n By Rachel Lense<\/a>, NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md;
with Tara Friesen<\/a>, NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif.<\/strong><\/p>\nShare<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n