Artificial intelligence can spot holes in the Sun's corona – Physics World

Artificial intelligence can be used to detect coronal holes in the Sun's upper atmosphere, an international research team has shown. Robert Jarolim at the University of Graz in Austria, Tatiana Podladchikova at Skoltech in Russia and colleagues have demonstrated a strong agreement between the holes identified by their convolutional neural network, and those picked up manually by astronomers. The system could lead to more reliable forecasting of disruptive space weather and an improved understanding of the Sun's complex evolution. When observed at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths, holes can appear in the Sun's corona – its upper atmosphere. These holes are cooler and less dense than surrounding material in the corona and comprise many smaller-scale magnetic funnels.