{"id":284524,"date":"2026-01-14T20:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/284524\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T20:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:41:08","slug":"physics-professor-gerard-fasel-and-seaver-students-present-solar-terrestrial-interactions-at-the-american-geophysical-union-conference-newsroom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/284524\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics Professor Gerard Fasel and Seaver Students Present Solar-Terrestrial Interactions at the American Geophysical Union Conference | Newsroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 15 years, Seaver College\u2019s Physics Department, under the leadership of professor
\n Gerard Fasel, has maintained Pepperdine\u2019s strong presence at the American Geophysical
\n Union (AGU), one of the largest scientific conferences in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Convening scientists from prolific research institutions such as NASA and leading
\n universities, AGU hosted Fasel, Seaver physics professor John Mann, and their undergraduate
\n researchers in New Orleans, Louisiana, from December 11 to 19, 2025. Named as a primary
\n convener, Fasel developed the session \u201cInfluence of Space Weather on Solar-Terrestrial
\n Interactions\u201d in which the Seaver team presented related research and introduced a
\n new AI data recovery collaboration with Fabien Scalzo, Seaver computer science professor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SeaverSeaver physics student explaining dynamics of daytime-occuring auroras<\/p>\n

Space weather refers to activity from the Sun, such as solar winds and solar storms,
\n which affects the Earth and our neighboring planets. Coining the term \u201cnear-Earth
\n astrophysics,\u201d Fasel has devoted much of his career to investigating solar-terrestrial
\n interactions between the Sun and Earth, using the aurora borealis to obtain clues
\n regarding the coupling mechanisms between the solar wind and the Earth\u2019s terrestrial
\n magnetic field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStars have winds,\u201d says Fasel. \u201cAnd this includes our Sun. While solar wind is a
\n relatively continuous stream of particles that interact with the Earth\u2019s magnetic
\n field, the Sun can also produce powerful solar storms. These storms expel billions
\n of charged particles [plasma] coupled to magnetic fields, called coronal mass ejections,
\n which bang up into the Earth\u2019s magnetic field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SatelliteSatellite image of the aurora borealis from the International Space Station<\/p>\n

The Earth\u2019s magnetic field lines, Fasel explains, \u201cact like wires\u201d on which these
\n particles travel down into the Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere, specifically the ionosphere.
\n The aurora is an end result of this interaction, where high-energy electrons collide with oxygen to produce green
\n light, while those of lower energy produce a raspberry-red color. The aurora\u2019s dancing
\n ripples, or striations, exist due to these magnetic field lines. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Photos captured at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory in Norway, together with images
\n from NASA spacecraft within the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, provide data that help identify
\n patterns for predicting adverse space weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to be able to forecast when we\u2019re going to have a big burst of solar energy
\n hit the Earth\u2019s ionosphere,\u201d Fasel reflects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the AGU session he chaired, Fasel invited two close colleagues to present on
\n daytime auroras and related satellite-based models. Additionally, two more presentations
\n elaborated on his collaborative research efforts, one of which marked the culmination
\n of four years of research on solar wind discontinuities with Sun Lee of NASA Goddard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following discussion, \u201cAI and Dayside Aurora BACC Data,\u201d introduced the Seaver
\n team\u2019s brand-new interdisciplinary research in the fields of AI and astrophysics developed
\n with Scalzo and Seaver computer-science student Jason Press.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Press speaking with Seaver physics professor John Mann<\/p>\n

Demonstrating the broad applications of Fasel\u2019s research, his collaboration with Scalzo
\n and Press has proved to be groundbreaking. During the summer of 2025, the trio purposed
\n funds from a sizable grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation<\/a> to curate AI software that removes cloud formation from photos of aurora borealis
\n taken at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory. This new software opens the door for Fasel
\n to recover not only current data, but images from decades ago that were previously
\n scrapped due to cloud cover. \u00a0<\/p>\n

To train the AI model, Press explains that he and Scalzo fed the software two types
\n of images. One would be a clear photo of the aurora borealis and the other would be
\n altered with fake clouds. With this dynamic, the model was able to understand the
\n qualities of clouds and auroral light through comparison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off with the most simple form of clouds, and then we increased the complexity
\n of the images,\u201d explains Press. \u201cThe model takes a cloudy image, and it gives what
\n it thinks is the correct response. Then we compare the model\u2019s response to the actual
\n ground truth and that provides our overall loss. We train the model to minimize the
\n amount of loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RestoredRestored image of an aurora (bottom left) from the Kjell Henriksen Observatory<\/p>\n

Then on December 18, Press took the AGU stage to present this technological breakthrough,
\n while Fasel served as the session chair\/discussion moderator. \u201cWe were losing valuable
\n data,\u201d Fasel explains. \u201cThere were a lot of times when we had cloudy weather, but
\n aurora still appeared on those days. I\u2019d have friends from NASA reach out and ask,
\n \u2018Do you have this day of photos in your data?\u2019 I\u2019d look, and find that the auroras
\n were indistinguishable because of the clouds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When left unpredictable, solar-terrestrial phenomena can lead to adverse effects on
\n Earth. For example, the Carrington effect of 1859, the largest geomagnetic storm in
\n history, led to widespread blackouts and sparked fires in telegraph stations globally,
\n theorized to be due to a coronal mass ejection. Intensely bright auroras were witnessed
\n even in low-hemisphere locations such as Hawaii. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SeaverSeaver undergraduate researchers at AGU<\/p>\n

\u201cSeaver faculty have created a strong culture of including undergraduate students
\n in their research programs,\u201d says Lila McDowell Carlsen, vice provost and professor
\n of hispanic studies. \u201cDr. Fasel, Dr. Mann, and Dr. Scalzo’s collaboration with their
\n students is exceptional and provides a unique experience that will positively impact
\n their future trajectories. Another example is Sean Wu<\/a> who worked with Dr. Scalzo and others on a number of medical applications of AI,
\n and Sean is now in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. What is so special about Seaver is
\n that our faculty are conducting highly specialized research<\/a>, and they bring their students along for every step of the way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to Press\u2019 contributions, a swath of Seaver students, accompanied by John
\n Mann, assistant professor of physics, presented eight poster displays as part of Fasel\u2019s
\n Space Weather poster session. Topics spanned from observations of North-South auroral
\n arcs, the dimming and intensifying of dayside auroral pulsations, and the anatomy
\n of certain anomalies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJason and Fabien made my idea into a reality,\u201d says Fasel. \u201cThis technological breakthrough
\n presented at AGU, among many others, brings us closer to a deeper understanding of
\n space weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo Credit:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora borealis from the International Space Station provided by NASA astronaut Donald
\n Pettit<\/p>\n

Aurora borealis from the Kjell Henriksen Observatory provided by Gerard Fasel<\/p>\n

Conference photos provided by Jason Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 15 years, Seaver College\u2019s Physics Department, under the leadership of professor Gerard Fasel, has maintained Pepperdine\u2019s strong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-284524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115895394920539890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}