New Solar Research by NCAR and Lynker’s Dr. Scott McIntosh Reveals Meteorological Insights for Space Weather Forecasting

New groundbreaking research by the NSF NCAR – The National Center for Atmospheric Research and Scott McIntosh, Lynker’s VP of Space Operations, was just published in PNAS “A Magnetohydrodynamic Mechanism for the Formation of Solar Polar Vortices”. The findings indicate that the Sun’s magnetic field likely plays an important role in creating solar polar vortices similar to those on Earth and other planets.   https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2415157121

The study highlights the importance of future missions to directly observe the Sun’s polar regions, adds to evidence that the atmospheres of the Sun and Earth behave in similar ways, and suggests that a meteorological approach to observing and modeling the Sun could improve space weather forecasts.

“We’re piling on the evidence that the Sun’s atmosphere and weather behave just like those on our planet. The implication would be that you have to treat the Sun’s atmosphere as a meteorological object,” said McIntosh, who has led this year’s roll out of Lynker’s new space weather prediction capability that enables industry-specific forecasts and alerts to mitigate detrimental impacts to vulnerable assets, infrastructure and services. Learn more at https://lynker-space.com/