Research

Life in space: habitability in our solar system and beyond

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:21:53 +0000

Life in space: habitability in our solar system and beyond Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/30/2024 - 11:21

Our planet protects us from cosmic rays, solar flares, micrometeorites and huge temperature variations. But what if the planetary shield is not strong enough, or what if we venture out into space itself?! In this press conference, scientists discuss the observation of biosignatures on distant exoplanets and where is the best Lunar real estate. For those who decide to remain on spaceship Earth, scientists outline how they predict sunspots and other extreme space weather with the help of advanced Machine Learning technology and.... a regular clock.

Participants:

Werner Grandl Space Renaissance International, Italy
Stephanie Olson Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, United States of America
Enrico Camporeale (on behalf of Andong Hu) SWx TREC, CU Boulder, United States of America
Sandra Chapman Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Physics Department, University of Warwick, United Kingdom and Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tromsø, Norway

Recorded at EGU24 in Vienna, Austria, Thursday 18 April 2024.

To view the video and for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T12gm8npfWo

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The race to fix space-weather forecasting before next big solar storm hits

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 21:03:08 +0000

The race to fix space-weather forecasting before next big solar storm hits Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/04/2024 - 15:03

Solar activity can knock satellites off track, raising the risk of collisions. Scientists are hoping improved atmospheric models will help. “It’s not unlikely that we will get a large geomagnetic storm in the next four or five years,” says Berger. “And that will really test the whole thing.” The SWx TREC team in Colorado collaborates with Fang’s team at NOAA, trying to find ways to integrate the WAM-IPE model’s predictions of changes in atmospheric density into calculations of satellite orbits.

More information on this grant can be found in this MIT Technology Review article.

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Forecasters can now predict space weather-induced disruptions to the power grid an hour in advance

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:16:41 +0000

Forecasters can now predict space weather-induced disruptions to the power grid an hour in advance Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/23/2024 - 13:16

At the AGU's 2023 Fall meeting in San Francisco, Andong Hu, a space weather researcher with SWx TREC, presented his work on a machine learning forecast approach, developed at CU Boulder, that gives power transmission operators more lead time. He said, "It's like an early-warning system for the power system. This means we might be able to better prepare for the impact of space weather on our critical infrastructure during storm events.”

More information on this grant can be found in this CIRES article.

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The Next Big Solar Storm Could Fry the Grid

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 19:51:46 +0000

The Next Big Solar Storm Could Fry the Grid Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/11/2023 - 13:51

One day, you wake up, and the power is out. You try to get information on your phone, and you have no internet access. Gradually you discover millions of people across the U.S. are in the same situation–one that will bring months or years of rebuilding.

A gigantic solar storm has hit Earth.

To get ahead of this threat, a loose federation of U.S. and international government agencies, and hundreds of scientists affiliated with those bodies, have begun working on how to make predictions about what our Sun might do. And a small but growing cadre of scientists argue that artificial intelligence will be an essential component of efforts to give us advance notice of such a storm.

Already, the first primitive ancestor of future AI-based solar-weather alert systems is live. [SWx TREC's] DstLive system, which debuted on the web in December 2022, uses machine learning to take data about the state of Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind and translate both into a single measure for the entire planet, known as DST.

More information on this grant can be found in this Wall Street Journal article.

The first primitive ancestor of future AI-based solar-weather alert systems is live. [SWx TREC's] DstLive system, which debuted on the web in December 2022, uses machine learning to take data about the state of Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind and translate both into a single measure for the entire planet, known as DST.

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New center will lay groundwork for better space weather forecasts

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:30:37 +0000

New center will lay groundwork for better space weather forecasts Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/25/2023 - 09:30

NASA announced that it had selected four Space Weather Centers of Excellence, including the Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) center at CU Boulder. As its name suggests, the nearly $10 million center will offer some powerful protection for the planet: SWORD research will seek to help scientists develop more accurate and timely conditions of the “space weather” hundreds of miles above the surface of Earth—where impacts from solar storms can increase the risk of satellite collisions and interfere with communications and navigation.

More information on this grant can be found in this CU Boulder Today article.

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NASA Selects Space Weather Centers for Excellence

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 18:57:37 +0000

NASA Selects Space Weather Centers for Excellence Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/16/2023 - 12:57

The Space Weather Technology, Research & Education Center is leading a NASA Space Weather Center of Excellence, an integrated multi-agency initiative to advance the science and technology of space weather.

NASA has selected three Space Weather Centers of Excellence (SWxC) and is partnering with the Department of Commerce (DoC) on the joint selection of a fourth proposal. The SWxC program element supports multi-institution collaboration to address grand challenge goals of space weather that require more than individual investigators or small teams.

The mission of the SWx TREC's Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) Center, under principal investigator Thomas Berger of CU/SWx TREC, is to conduct research that will improve forecasts and nowcasts of Earth’s orbital environment, including cislunar space that is becoming a focus of NASA activity as we return astronauts to the Moon. This will help predict geomagnetic storm impacts to airline and orbital space operations. The center's team also includes researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) High Altitude Observatory (HAO), the University of Michigan, the University of Alaska, the University of Iowa, and the NASA Langley Research Center.

More information can be found here.

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CU Boulder researcher earns NASA grant to study how space weather affects Earth

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:49:19 +0000

CU Boulder researcher earns NASA grant to study how space weather affects Earth Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/01/2023 - 08:49

Yang Wang is leading a unique study harnessing satellite data to study how solar activity affects a poorly understood region of Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Wang, a visiting faculty member in the Ann and H. J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences working in the Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center (SWx TREC) and a 2021 graduate of CU Boulder’s aerospace PhD program, has earned a $699,018, four-year Early Career Investigator award from NASA.

“I’m going to be studying the responses of the Earth’s ionosphere to solar activities, particularly in the polar regions,” Wang said. “They are very complicated, coupled processes and are not very well modeled or understood.”

More information on this story can be found here.

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SWx TREC PhD student awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:35:26 +0000

SWx TREC PhD student awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/24/2021 - 09:35

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the 2021 winners of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

Swx TREC PhD student Anton Buynovskiy was among those to receive the prestigious award which recognizes and supports individuals early in their graduate training in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

Anton is completing his first year of CU graduate school and is the student lead of the science/instrument portion of the NSF Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) mission, a three-cubesat mission studying the lower Earth orbit (LEO) environment. His graduate research fellowship program titled Measuring and Interpreting Atomic Oxygen Concentrations in the Thermosphere, will advance theory and modeling of the equatorial LEO environment with an emphasis on atomic oxygen behavior. Anton will also advance a new atomic oxygen sensor (FIPEX) by developing lab experiments and testing procedures using a novel cross molecular beam apparatus capable of generating atomic oxygen fluxes with velocities close to 8 km/s.

"The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education. The GRFP provides three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements in STEM or STEM education." For more information, see the NSF site.

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SWx TREC executive director wins NASA grant for machine learning

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 21:14:08 +0000

SWx TREC executive director wins NASA grant for machine learning Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/09/2020 - 14:14

Dr. Thomas Berger, SWx TREC executive director, has landed a NASA grant to research space weather with machine learning. Berger is leading a team that has received a two-year, $496,000 grant to design a better forecasting system for solar magnetic eruptions on the sun.

More information on this grant can be found in this College of Engineering and Applied Science article.

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SWx TREC Co-Investigator Cora Randall wins Phase I NASA DRIVE Center Grant

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 21:27:42 +0000

SWx TREC Co-Investigator Cora Randall wins Phase I NASA DRIVE Center Grant Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/12/2020 - 15:27

SWx TREC co-investigator Cora Randall is the principal investigator for one of two new CU science centers to be funded by NASA. The program is part of NASA’s Diversity, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate (DRIVE) Science Center initiative.

Randall's project, Wave-induced Atmospheric Variability (WAVE), studies gravity waves, which can affect Earth's space weather environment and form lenticular clouds like those often seen over Boulder.

More information on this project and other DRIVE Centers can be found in this CU Boulder Today story.

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