olar
physics researchers at Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC) use NPACI supercomputers to model the state of the solar
corona for space weather predictions. In one simulation, photospheric
magnetic field measurements from Kitt Peak National Solar Observatory
were used to model the solar corona in May 2001, by solving the
magnetohydrodynamic equations. The simulation uses a polar-coordinate
mesh measuring 111 x 101 x 128 in radial distance, solar latitude,
and solar longitudemore than 1.4 million cells. The colored
arcs in the image indicate magnetic field lines. See
story in this issue.
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