The Sun, our nearest luminary, continues to be a mystery even to scientists of today. Its activity affects not only Earth, but also space weather, which could pose a threat to satellites and astronauts. Understanding the patterns of solar activity is key to predicting these phenomena.
NASA has recently unveiled a 3D visualization that shows the behavior of the Sun’s inner layers. These simulations show how turbulent flows of material rise from the inner layers to the atmosphere, changing their shape and velocity in the process. The models display particle motion using a color scale: red indicates fast flows that gradually transition to yellow, green, and blue with a gradual decrease in velocity.
“Right now, we don’t have the computational capabilities to create realistic global models of the entire sun due to the complexity,” explained Irina Kitiashvili, a NASA scientist at the Ames Research Center. Therefore, the team focused on smaller areas to study small structures, such as shock waves or solar tornadoes.
These models were created on the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA’s data center. The calculations took weeks and the results contained raw terabytes of data. Information from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which has been observing the Sun since 2010, has been used as the basis for the modeling.
One of the most interesting events recorded by SDO in April was a quadruple eruption of solar flares. It arose due to the accumulation of magnetic energy in the Sun’s atmosphere, which later spewed out powerful electromagnetic waves.
“The sun keeps surprising us,” Kitiashvili noted. These models will help us better understand the processes that control our world and affect the entire cosmos.
Previously, we explained when the Sun would explode.
Provided by space.com
