Access to Modern Heliophysics Simulations in Space Weather Context as a Powerful Educational Tool

Abstract:

Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is a multi-agency partnership aimed at enabling, supporting and performing research and development for next-generation space science and space weather models. Accompanied by advanced visualizations, these models, covering a vast domain from the sun to the planets’ electromagnetic environment, allow us to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of physical processes in Heliosphere and explore a rich variety of space weather events, from Coronal Mass Ejections to Solar Energetic Particle events and geomagnetic storms. The CCMC hosts an expanding collection of such models developed by the international space science community and has built cutting-edge web-based tools in support of simulation, research, education and operational space weather forecasting. We will highlight how these hands-on tools and simulations allow students and members of the general public to interactively explore space weather phenomena while gaining space environment awareness and an understanding of the fundamentals of the Sun-Earth system.