IBM and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have introduced Surya, an open-source artificial intelligence model designed to predict solar weather with high precision. The model is now available on Hugging Face and makes use of nine years of data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to forecast solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These events can disrupt satellites, power grids, telecommunications, and airline navigation systems.
“Think of this as a weather forecast for space,” said Dr. Juan Bernabe Moreno, Director of IBM Research Europe, UK and Ireland. Surya represents a significant advancement in heliophysics, improving solar flare classification by 16 percent compared to earlier methods. For the first time, it can also visually predict flare locations up to two hours in advance.
Kevin M., NASA’s Chief Science Data Officer, highlighted the broader importance of the initiative: “By developing a foundation model trained on NASA’s heliophysics data, we’re making it easier to analyse the complexities of the Sun’s behaviour with unprecedented speed and precision.”
Surya is built on the largest curated heliophysics dataset, making it both a research tool and a practical solution for industries affected by solar storms. It enhances scientific understanding of the Sun while providing vital applications for sectors that face risks from solar activity.
The Surya release is part of the ongoing collaboration between IBM and NASA, following their earlier Prithvi project, which focused on AI-powered analysis of geospatial and weather data. With Lloyd’s estimating that the economic cost of solar events could reach 17 billion dollars globally, Surya is expected to play a key role in protecting satellites, astronauts, aviation, and even agriculture from the unpredictable effects of solar storms.
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