The Secret of Sunspots and Solar Magnetic Fields Researched in NASA Supercomputing Simulations – Speeding Up With That?

from NASA

The sun is more than just a light source for Earth – it is a dynamic and complex star, with storms, rays and motions that make it constantly changing. Magnetic fields govern most of the solar activity that we can observe, but how they do this is still poorly understood. New results based on simulations from NASA’s advanced Supercomputing facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley are painting a more complete picture of one of the energy features the most prominent magnetically driven sun – a sunspot-forming cycle known as the “torque oscillation”. “

A computational analysis of data on the structure and dynamics of the Sun from two NASA spacecraft has revealed the magnitude of these torsion oscillations due to the continuing weakening of the magnetic field deep within the Sun. This suggests that the current sunspot cycle may be weaker than the previous one, and that the long-term trend of declining the Sun’s magnetic field is likely to continue. Such changes in the Sun’s interior could have an impact on space weather as well as Earth’s atmosphere and climate.

The sunspot cycle begins when a sunspot begins to form at about 30 degrees latitude on the Sun’s surface. The forming area then begins to move towards the equator. At maximum intensity, the Sun’s global magnetic field has reversed polar regions – as if there were an anode and a cathode of a magnet at each of the Sun’s poles, and they were swapped. These 22 year variations are caused by dynamo processes inside the Sun. The dynamo process is when the liquid or plasma rotates, convection and conducts electricity to help maintain the magnetic field. These deep magnetic fields are hidden and cannot be observed directly, but their effects can be seen in variations in the solar rotation, creating a cyclical pattern of currents moving through regions. area – torsional oscillations. In some areas, this rotation speeds up or slows down, while in others it remains steady.

This analysis used data from two NASA missions, the Solar and Heliosphere Observatory and the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The Joint Science Operations Center at Stanford University processed data from 22 years of observations from both missions — more than five petabytes in total. NASA’s supercomputing facilities handle flow analysis, numerical modeling, and visualizations that give scientists a better look at this complex pattern.

In the future, improvements to data resolution, data analysis techniques, and simulation models will help merge models of the Sun’s magnetic field with those of sunspot activity, improve understanding of how these processes affect the interior of the Sun. What happens to the Sun, including the processes below its surface, affects space weather that impacts the entire solar system, including Earth. The more we know about the star that lights up our homes, the better we understand its impact on our home planet.