WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- For the first time, researchers have developed a computer simulation that can accurately create a model of the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona.
NASA says the computer model it funded with the National Science Foundation marks the beginning of a new era in space weather prediction.
By accurately simulating the behavior of the corona, scientists hope to eventually predict when the sun will produce flares and coronal mass ejections -- huge clouds of hot plasma ejected from the sun. It's the same approach the National Weather Service uses to predict when the Earth's atmosphere will produce thunderstorms or hurricanes.
NASA says such predictions will help protect astronauts against radiation from flares and coronal mass ejections, in addition to mitigating disruptions on orbiting satellites and land-based communications and power systems.
The turbulent corona is threaded with magnetic fields generated beneath the visible solar surface. The evolution of those magnetic fields causes violent eruptions and solar storms originating in the corona.
The computer model was based on spacecraft observations of magnetic activity on the sun's surface.
The research was presented Monday in Durham, N.H., during a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division.
