Paul Cassak, an associate professor of physics at WVU, is working on a project that will study how solar flares work.

Understanding flares is important because they can cause damage on Earth.

Solar flares are energetic eruptions on the surface of the sun. They range from small eruptions to large eruptions, emitting bursts of light and hot particles in the process. These particles can be damaging to important technology on Earth, such as communication systems and the power grid.

“Big eruptions give off particles that can go out into space,” said Cassak. “If they run into the space around Earth, they can cause problems.”

The particles released by large solar flares can damage satellites, cause power outages and can harm astronauts. Studying space weather, which includes predicting activity on the sun, can help prevent extensive damages from these flares.

“If you have a satellite and you know it will get blasted by these particles, you could turn it off right before these particles come, and then turn it back on when the particles are gone,” Cassak said. “Then you don’t have much damage to the satellite, whereas if you couldn’t predict when the particles arrive, they would just hit the satellites and cause damage.

“That has happened before,” Cassak said. “Some satellites costing hundreds of millions of dollars don’t work anymore because this happened. So, the goal is to predict when flares will happen so we can avoid the damage.”

Cassak will be collaborating on the project with Jiong Qiu, an associate professor of physics, and Dana Longcope, a professor of physics, both at Montana State University. Qiu, Longcope and a graduate student will study satellite observations to learn how solar flares evolve over time. Cassak and a graduate student will run and analyze large numerical simulations using supercomputers.

The project, which will last three years, is being funded by Solar, Heliospheric, and Interplanetary Environment (SHINE), a program within the National Science Foundation. WVU will receive $55,702 for the first year to pay for equipment and for Cassak and a graduate student to work on the project.

The supercomputers that will be used are operated by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center and NASA. Both systems are in the top 25 fastest computers in the world, Cassak said.

“We run simulations that would probably take about a year to run on a single computer,” Cassak said. “So, that’s why we have to use supercomputers. It goes a lot faster instead we can finish it in a day or so.”

Both computers are located in California, but Cassak connects to them through his computer at the University.

“The supercomputers are at government facilities. They’ve done an amazing job to set up these resources for scientists,” Cassak said.

-WVU-

as/07/20/2015

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