Space Weather Modeling System Software Support
UAH performed software engineering support for Exploration Physics International, Inc.’s solar wind model, including programming language porting, module integration, and high performance computing conversion.
Space weather, including the solar wind, produces physical phenomena, such as geomagnetic storms and ionospheric disturbances, that affect satellites in earth orbit and terrestrial communications systems. The U. S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) uses computer models to predict space weather that could affect its operations. Exploration Physics International, Inc. (EXPI), a Huntsville Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small business, is supporting AFWA with its Space Weather Modeling System (SWMS), a real-time space weather model which includes the Hakamada-Akasofu-Fry version 2 (HAFv2) solar wind model and Utah State University’s Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) ionosphere model linked using standardized interface middleware.
UAH performed software engineering work on the system in conjunction with EXPI. UAH's work included porting the solar wind model to a newer version of the Fortran programming language, integrating new submodels for planetary motion and plotting ecliptic plane solar wind parameters into the system, converting the software to execute on various high performance computing platforms to enhance scalability and portability, and contributing to the project’s software development and test documents.
