{"id":281204,"date":"2025-09-10T01:43:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=910833"},"modified":"2025-09-10T01:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:43:26","slug":"nasa-partnerships-allow-artificial-intelligence-to-predict-solar-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=281204","title":{"rendered":"NASA Partnerships Allow Artificial Intelligence to Predict Solar Events"},"content":{"rendered":"
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3 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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While auroras are a beautiful sight on Earth, the solar activity that causes them can wreak havoc with space-based infrastructure like satellites. Using artificial intelligence to predict these disruptive solar events was a focus of KX\u2019s work with FDL.<\/div>\n
Credit: Sebastian Saarloos<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In the summer of 2024, people across North America were amazed when auroras lit up the night sky across their hometowns, but the same solar activity that makes auroras can cause disruptions to satellites that are essential to systems on Earth. The solution to predicting these solar events and warning satellite operators may come through artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Frontier Development Lab<\/a>\u00a0of Mountain View, California, is an ongoing partnership between NASA and commercial AI firms to apply advanced machine learning to problems that matter to the agency and beyond. Since 2016, the Frontier Development Lab has applied AI on behalf of NASA in planetary defense, Heliophysics, Earth science, medicine, and lunar exploration.<\/p>\n

Through a collaboration with a company called KX Systems, the Frontier Development Lab looked to use proven software in an innovative new\u00a0way<\/a>.\u00a0The company\u2019s flagship data analytics software,\u00a0called kdb+, is\u00a0typically used in the financial industry to keep track of rapid shifts in market trends, but the company\u00a0was\u00a0exploring how it\u00a0could\u00a0be used in space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between 2017 and 2019,\u00a0KX Systems\u00a0participated\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0Frontier Development Lab\u00a0partnership\u00a0through NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. Working with NASA scientists, KX applied the capabilities of kdb+ to searching for exoplanets and predicting space weather, areas which could be improved with AI models. One question the Frontier Development Lab worked to answer was whether kdb+ could forecast the kind of space weather that creates the auroras to predict when GPS satellites might experience signal interruption due to the Sun.<\/p>\n

By importing several datasets monitoring the ionosphere, solar activity, and Earth\u2019s magnetic field, then applying machine learning algorithms to them, the Frontier Development Lab researchers were able to predict disruptive events up to 24 hours in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this was a scientific application of AI,\u00a0KX Systems\u00a0says some of this development work has made it back into its commercial offerings, as there are similarities between AI models developed to find patterns in satellite signal losses and ones that predict maintenance needs for industrial manufacturing equipment.<\/p>\n

A division of FD Technologies plc., KX Systems is a technology company that offers database management and analytics software for customers that need to make decisions quickly. While KX started in 1993,\u00a0its\u00a0AI-driven business has grown considerably, and the company credits work done with NASA for accelerating some of its capabilities.<\/p>\n

From protecting valuable satellites to keeping manufacturing lines moving at top performance, pairing NASA\u2019s expertise with commercial ingenuity is a combination for success.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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