Global Solar MHD Modeling
In this project, the 3D global MHD model is used to accurately reproduce the structure and long-term pattern of the solar magnetic dynamo. To simulate the motion of plasma on the Sun, Stejko and Kosovichev ran a complex set of calculations on up to 512 parallel nodes (8 cores per processor and 16 cores per node) of Pleiades, simulating 100 years of solar evolution in just 3 weeks—a process that would have taken a decade on regular computers. Higher resolution simulations that were used for hyperwall visualizations took 10 times longer and needed hundreds of gigabytes of memory to store in NAS’s mass storage system.
The NAS Data Analysis and Visualization team used this data to produce high-resolution videos and images that give the NJIT researchers an incredibly detailed look at how turbulence inside the Sun can create magnetic structures. The visualizations helped the researchers track the magnetic field over several centuries, and improved their understanding of where and how it evolves in the Sun.
The high-resolution videos and images are being used to further improve the NJIT team’s numerical methods, in order to generate realistic models that can be used to predict the effects of space weather on Earth. However, many puzzles remain to be solved about what happens inside the Sun’s deep interior. Stejko says the team is now applying what they have learned to build a new model that will give even more precise results and link the modeled interior flows to measurements of the actual flows obtained from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, with the ultimate goal of developing a model that will work exactly like the Sun.
Alexander Kosovichev
Andrey Stejko