The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is establishing the Institute for Space Weather Sciences (ISWS), which will include a new Center dedicated to AI-driven solar eruption forecasting, supported by a $5 million grant from NASA.

This initiative is part of NASA's broader $45 million funding program aimed at enhancing research and educational opportunities in STEM across 21 higher-education institutions.

Haimin Wang, the director of ISWS, highlighted the center's mission to integrate artificial intelligence with space weather research to improve real-time predictions of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

The AI-Powered Solar Eruption Center of Excellence in Research and Education (SEC) will collaborate with NASA, New York University, and IBM to advance solar eruption prediction capabilities.

A significant challenge in solar eruption research is the scarcity of comprehensive data on large-scale solar events; the SEC aims to address this by utilizing advanced machine learning techniques.

Improving forecasting methods is crucial, as solar flares and CMEs can severely disrupt satellite operations and power grids on Earth.

Bo Shen, the associate director of the SEC, emphasized the goal of merging physics with AI tools to create models that yield both accurate predictions and fundamental insights into solar phenomena.

The SEC plans to develop a long-term solar activity dataset that will span multiple 11-year solar cycles, enhancing the understanding of solar eruption precursors and improving predictive capabilities.

The SEC will complement NJIT's existing research centers, such as the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, and contribute to a multidisciplinary approach to studying solar physics and the impacts of space weather.

In addition to research, the SEC will focus on education and outreach, providing research opportunities and initiatives for students and K-12 teachers, in collaboration with other minority-serving institutions.