August 20, 2025 — Leads & Copy — IBM and NASA have launched an open-source foundation model designed to interpret high-resolution solar observation data and forecast how solar activity impacts Earth and space technology. The model, named Surya, aims to protect GPS, power grids, and telecommunications from solar disturbances.
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections can disrupt satellites, airline navigation, and power grids, posing radiation risks to astronauts. Surya addresses limitations in traditional solar weather prediction by training on a large, curated heliophysics dataset.
In early testing, Surya showed a 16% improvement in solar flare classification accuracy and can visually predict solar flares up to two hours in advance. The model was trained on nine years of high-resolution data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Surya is available on Hugging Face.
The model is part of a collaboration between IBM and NASA to use AI in exploring our planet and solar system. The model will provide tools to help experts plan for solar storms, which can disrupt the Earth’s technological infrastructure.
Juan Bernabe-Moreno is the Director of IBM Research Europe, UK and Ireland.
Kevin Murphy is the chief science data officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Ashley Peterson, IBM Research Communications, Ashley.peterson@ibm.com
Source: IBM
