Heads up! NASA’s AI gives satellite operators 24-hour warning for solar storms

NASA’s Frontier Development Lab has successfully used artificial intelligence to predict disruptive solar events up to 24 hours in advance, working with commercial partner KX Systems to adapt financial market analytics software for space weather forecasting. This breakthrough could help satellite operators prepare for solar activity that causes both stunning auroras and potentially damaging disruptions to GPS and other space-based infrastructure.

How it works: The collaboration leveraged KX Systems’ kdb+, a data analytics software typically used to track rapid financial market shifts, to analyze space weather patterns.

• Researchers imported multiple datasets monitoring the ionosphere (the upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere), solar activity, and Earth’s magnetic field, then applied machine learning algorithms to predict when satellites might experience signal interruption.
• The AI models can forecast disruptive solar events with 24-hour advance warning, giving satellite operators crucial time to protect their systems.
• KX Systems participated in the partnership through NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley between 2017 and 2019.

The big picture: The Frontier Development Lab represents an ongoing partnership between NASA and commercial AI firms to apply advanced machine learning to space-related challenges.

• Since 2016, the lab has tackled problems across planetary defense, heliophysics, Earth science, medicine, and lunar exploration.
• The collaboration demonstrates how AI solutions developed for one industry can be successfully adapted to solve completely different problems in space science.

Commercial applications: KX Systems says the space weather research has enhanced its commercial offerings beyond the original NASA work.

• The company found similarities between AI models that predict satellite signal losses and those that forecast maintenance needs for industrial manufacturing equipment.
• As a division of FD Technologies plc., KX Systems has seen considerable growth in its AI-driven business, crediting NASA collaboration for accelerating some capabilities.

Why this matters: Solar events that create beautiful auroras can wreak havoc on the satellites essential to modern life on Earth.

• The summer 2024 aurora displays that amazed North Americans were caused by the same solar activity that can disrupt GPS, communications, and other satellite-dependent systems.
• Accurate space weather prediction helps protect billions of dollars worth of space infrastructure while maintaining critical services that depend on satellite connectivity.