EUHFORIA 2.0 is an extremely ambitious project to model the space around the sun and in which the earth floats. Camilla Scolini was there at the start of the project and brings us her story.
EUHFORIA 2.0 puts extra physics in the model imposed by plasma clouds and energetic particles thrown out by the sun and interacting with the Earth magnetic shield. The connection with the geospace, our space in which humans navigate and communicate is crucial to get our space weather forecast fine-tuned and as correct as possible.
Team work
At the kick-off in December 2019, the workflow was put in place. In the meanwhile, partners exchanged results and built a firm foundation for this heliospheric model with real data, real events and better science.
Camilla Scolini:”Coordination and team efforts are important in projects with this size. As deputy project manager it is nice to see such an enthusiasm amongst the team members. Our discussions at the kick-off in Leuven were for sure lively and animated.”
Camilla focused for her PhD which started in 2016, on Coronal Mass Ejections that had an impact on the geo-space. She worked with the former EUHFORIA. The 2.0 edition gave her the chance to rethink this and broaden the original study. The present work builds bridges between detail oriented experts, allowing to complete and deepen the sun-space-earth chain.
A 2D top (three full circles, (x,y)-HEEQ coordinates) and side (almost half circles, (z HEEQ,distance) view of the heliosphere. The white dot is the sun, the earth is the blue dot. From Camilla Scolini et al, 2020 ApJS 247 21
User test
EUHFORIA 2.0 will be tested in a real operational environment. The Regional Warning Centre of the STCE will run the model for the daily space weather forecast routine. This win-win situation allows on one hand the EUHFORIA 2.0 team to validate the complex model, on the other hand the forecast centre to use the newest techniques and models.
Looking forward
Camilla finished her PhD in May 2020. She stays in space weather research as she was awarded the prestigious Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020-2022) by the NASA Living With a Star program, starting end of September 2020. Stefaan Poedts, coordinator of EUHFORIA 2.0 and the whole team wishes Camilla all the best with her further career and hope to continue to collaborate in the future.
