The MAGE model links several existing predictive tools for Earth's magnetosphere, ring current, and upper atmosphere into a single framework, giving space weather specialists a more complete view of how solar activity drives changes in near-Earth space.
Researchers can access MAGE through NASA's Community Coordinated Modeling Center as well as via a public GitHub repository, where they can run simulations and integrate model outputs into their own studies of space weather.
The CGS team has also produced an open analysis and visualization package that enables users to process and display MAGE results, making it easier for scientists to examine simulations and compare them directly with observations.
"The public release of MAGE represents a major milestone for CGS and the space science community," said Slava Merkin, director of CGS at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
"Our team is looking forward to working with heliophysics researchers on making scientific discoveries and helping to better predict space weather."
CGS is one of three NASA DRIVE (Diversify, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate) science centers, which were formed to support collaborative heliophysics work by bringing together multidisciplinary teams from several U.S. institutions.
These centers employ modelers, theorists, computer scientists, and observers to investigate how the Sun influences the space environment, and the development of MAGE involved more than 50 experts from seven organizations.
Heliophysics examines the coupled system that extends from the Sun through the space around Earth and other planets and out to the limits of the solar wind, with particular attention to how solar flares, coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and the solar wind shape geospace.
This research underpins space weather science, which focuses on understanding and forecasting changes in the near-Earth environment that can affect technology and infrastructure.
Space weather storms can generate auroras, disrupt power grids, interfere with communications and navigation, and increase radiation exposure for astronauts and satellites, so realistic modeling tools such as MAGE are important for monitoring and forecasting these events.
The need for reliable space weather forecasts is growing as plans advance for sustained human activity beyond low Earth orbit, including NASA's Artemis campaign to explore the Moon and prepare for future crewed missions to Mars.
In May 2024, the MAGE model was used to simulate a sequence of strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections that struck Earth, producing a geospace storm rated G5, the highest level on the geomagnetic storm scale and the most intense in about two decades.
These storms generated bright auroras visible worldwide, including at unusually low magnetic latitudes such as the southern United States, offering a detailed test case for comparing MAGE simulations with global observations.
Further information on the Center for Geospace Storms and related heliophysics activities is available through NASA's heliophysics DRIVE science center pages.
Related Links
NASA Center for Geospace Storms
Solar Science News at SpaceDaily
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
