A U.S. Navy destroyer is operating in the Western Pacific and is impacted by the effects of a massive solar flare. This event has caused a ripple affect across the globe; impacting power grids, destroying electrical infrastructure and causing havoc to electronic communications. Our ship’s captain wonders how long this will last?
If Jeff Reep, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory has his way, the captain would be able to answer that question with real-time forecasting.
Reep published a paper, “Forecasting the Remaining Duration of an Ongoing Solar Flare.” In this work, Reep developed a method using a machine learning algorithm that would allow some prediction to the fleet for how long a flare might actually last.