A new £5 million, five-year project is underway in the UK to develop the Solar Atmospheric Modelling Suite (SAMS), a next-generation tool designed to simulate the Sun's atmosphere. Led by the University of Exeter in collaboration with the Universities of Warwick, Sheffield, and Cambridge, the SAMS project seeks to enhance the UK's position as a leader in understanding our nearest star.
The SAMS project aims to capture the complex interplay between solar radiation and the different layers of the Sun's atmosphere, including the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. It will investigate the physical processes behind solar activity, such as magnetic flux emergence, eruptions, and flares. The resulting modeling suite will be open-source and capable of running on a range of computers, from laptops to supercomputers.
Understanding the Sun's dynamics is crucial for protecting Earth's technology infrastructure, including satellite networks, power grids, and communication systems, from the impacts of space weather. The SAMS project will also provide training for early-career researchers and enable full exploitation of next-generation observations and Exascale computing. Professor Andrew Hillier from the University of Exeter notes that this project aims to restore the UK to a leading role in solar atmosphere simulation.
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections can disrupt power grids, damage satellites, and affect communications, making accurate solar modeling critical for our increasingly technology-dependent society. The SAMS code will be open source, with detailed physics-based documentation to promote ease of use.