The Governing Council of the University of Toronto
Enhanced MHD Modeling of Space Weather with Application to Lunar Environment — The Artemis and Lunar Gateway programs have near-term objectives that involve conducting science/research unique to their deep space location, including investigation of the heliosphere and solar wind, space weather, as well as the Lunar plasma environment. Additionally, Canadian Space Strategy objectives include improving the understanding of solar storms and their effects on astronauts and terrestrial infrastructure. The current project aligns with these priorities and involves international collaboration via active missions at the Moon and Mars and merging of spacecraft observational data from THEMIS-Artemis and MAVEN with magnetohydrodynamic simulations using advanced data assimilation/machine learning to better predict and understand the solar wind and Lunar and Martian environments. Outcomes are expected to improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on human activity at Earth and in space.