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<\/p>\nLike most years, 2017 saw numerous scientific advancements and discoveries throughout the solar system and beyond, most of which passed public attention with little fanfare for these discoveries that are helping to shape and build not only our knowledge of our solar system but also how to navigate the space around Earth in the safest way possible for our astronauts and spacecraft.\n<\/p>\n
At the center of these discoveries was the Sun, with scientists making numerous advancements in space weather forecasting \u2013 something that will greatly aid astronauts living aboard the International Space Station as well as future crewed missions beyond Low Earth Orbit to the Moon, asteroids, and to Mars.<\/p>\n
The dynamic environment surrounding Earth that our astronauts and spacecraft travel through can be bombarded at times by huge solar eruptions from the Sun, which spew giant clouds of magnetic energy and plasma \u2013 called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) \u2013 into space.<\/p>\n
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These animated images show the propagation of a CME as it erupts from the sun and travels through space, comparing actual NASA and ESA\u2019s SOHO satellite observations on the right to the simulation from the new CME-modeling tool at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center on the left. SOHO observed this CME on March 7, 2011. Credits: NASA\/CCMC\/University of Michigan\/Joy Ng<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Eruptive Event Generator (Gibson and Low), developed by a team at the University of Michigan, was designed to help map the path of potential Coronal Mass Ejections through space and their magnetic configurations when they arrive at Earth.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The new model uses calculations based on how the plasma properties and magnetic free energy, or electromagnetics, guide a Coronal Mass Ejection\u2019s movement through space, and can help researchers better understand how the Sun will affect near-Earth space and potentially improve our ability to predict space weather.<\/p>\n
Predicting these types of events and how strong they will be when they reach Earth is one of the multitude of things NASA monitors in regard to the permanent human presence aboard the International Space Station. If a Coronal Mass Ejection is predicted to be strong enough, the crew aboard the Station could seek shelter in either the U.S. Destiny laboratory or the Russian Zvezda service module, both of which are outfitted with more robust radiation shielding than the rest of the Station.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n