The Research Associate III, Step 2 will undertake research in the field of solar wind modeling in the context of solar and space physics. This includes working on the development and applications of the heliophysics foundation model (HelioFM) which is a multi-purpose, large-scale AI foundation model tailored specifically for heliophysics—the study of the Sun and its influence across the solar system. This model is trained using extensive observational data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), including imagery from multiple instruments and channels. The incumbent will need to have a clear understanding of this model and its application and be able to contribute to the developments, testing and running simulations with this model.
Duties/Responsibilities
• Use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images of the Sun available in the machine learning (ML) form from the HelioFM/SuryaBench to reconstruct photospheric magnetograms
• Apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to generate magnetograms for the far side of the Sun from the combination of
EUV and SDO/HMI data
• Run the Open Flux Transport (OFT) code to generate photospheric magnetograms covering the Sun’s poles and its far side, and
compare them with the AI-generated magnetograms
• Provide the data support and ensure the success of HelioFM/SuryaBench in the space weather research
• Publish the results of research in major scientific journals and report them at national and international meetings
• Bachelor's degree - preferably in Physics or Engineering; (experience in a specialized area may be substituted for a degree).
• 2.5 - 3 years of verifiable, full-time work experience.
• Experience working with solar wind modeling and heliospheric data analysis.
• Experience working with machine learning.
• History of publications related to modeling of the solar wind flow and coronal mass ejections with uncertainty quantification.
• Pending PhD in physics or engineering is desired.
• Understanding of the MSFC foundation model of the heliosphere (HelioFM) is desired.
• Proficiency in C++, IDL, and Python programming is desired.
• Interest in the application of machine learning to space weather forecasts is desired.
• Ability to travel internationally is desired.
$52,216 - $58,599
