A Swiss Army Knife for the Sun: New Simulation Method Unlocks Solar Secrets

Pulses from the Sun. Credit: JPL/NASA/SDO/AIA.

An international team of researchers from the SETI Institute, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab (LMSAL), Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI), and the University of Geneva wanted to build a more accurate and efficient computer model to understand the Sun’s atmosphere and better predict how it affects Earth and its technology. This effort was initiated by Quentin Wargnier, who moved to the start-up Green14 as an engineer responsible for simulations. The team developed a groundbreaking "Swiss army knife" for solar simulations to manage the Sun's complexity. This breakthrough will give scientists a better understanding of solar activity and improve space weather predictions that could affect Earth.

“This effort is a successful multi and cross-disciplinary effort that allowed the merging of a very powerful numerical scheme in an ambitious multi-physics and multi-fluids numerical modeling code (Ebysus),” said the SETI Institute’s Juan Martinez-Sykora, MUSE science deputy lead EUVIST Co-I.

The Sun is constantly active, emitting streams of charged particles and magnetic fields comprising solar wind. This solar weather creates beautiful effects, such as the northern lights, but can also negatively affect satellites, GPS systems, and power grids. Understanding and accurately predicting solar weather can help manage impacts.

To develop a model that could manage the Sun’s different layers, gases, varying temperatures and conditions, magnetic fields, and chemical reactions, all happening at different timescales, the researchers used the PIROCK method. Unlike other methods that handle each physical process separately (known as operator splitting), PIROCK considers them all simultaneously, adjusting calculations and providing faster, more accurate results.

This new method will allow interpreting observations from NASA missions, including IRIS and MUSE, which are studying the Sun's atmosphere. The model will help scientists analyze the data captured by these instruments, leading to new insights about the Sun.

This significant advance, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on March 28, 2025, marks a key step toward solving some of the Sun’s biggest mysteries and improving our ability to forecast space weather.

The paper is published here:  https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/03/aa52351-24/aa52351-24.html