SPACE SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM（68th）

Report Time: January 25, 2024, 10:00 AM

Report Venue: Sun Yat-sen University, Haiqin Building No. 2, Room A218

Report Title: Space Weather and Artificial Intelligence

Speaker: Professor Xu Zhihong

Host: Professor Cui Jun

Abstract:

Space weather originates from the sun, where nuclear fusion reactions continuously emit solar wind plasma and carry the solar magnetic field. When these plasmas and magnetic fields propagate to Earth and interact with the Earth's magnetosphere, they cause severe disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field, resulting in geomagnetic storms, accompanied by the descent of electrons to the upper atmosphere, leading to auroras at the Earth's poles. Occasionally, the sun also produces large storms, such as flares or coronal mass ejections, which can cause more intense disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere, known as magnetic storms. When magnetic storms occur, they can cause problems such as power outages, satellite malfunctions, communication disruptions, navigation errors, and aircraft rerouting, thereby affecting our high-tech lifestyle. The variability in the Earth's environment due to solar storms constitutes changes in space weather. Countries are committed to space science research and applying research findings to space weather forecasting, but the development of model accuracy has been limited. In recent years, the accumulation of big data and the affordability of computers have significantly advanced artificial intelligence technologies, and thus space scientists have begun to apply these AI technologies to improve space weather forecasting problems and apply them to aerospace technology. This report will briefly introduce the types and spatiotemporal scales of solar storms, the classification and measurement scales of space weather, and the application of artificial intelligence in space weather.

Speaker Xu Zhihong's Biography:

1989-1993: Ph.D., University of Alaska, USA

1993-1996: Postdoctoral researcher, National Central University, Taiwan

1996-1999: Lecturer, Nagoya University, Japan

1999-2001: Associate Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University, USA

2001-2003: Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University, USA

2003-2007: Associate Professor, National Central University, Taiwan

2007-present: Professor, National Central University, Taiwan

Main Achievements:

The magnetopause model by Shue et al. has become a standard model in space physics. According to Scopus citation data, the 1997 magnetopause model paper by Shue et al. has been cited 631 times, and the 1998 paper has been cited 817 times.