From 2026 to 2031, Professor of Computational Space Physics Minna Palmroth will serve as an Academy Professor, and from 2026 to 2030, as director of the new Centre of Excellence in Space Resilience. Her key interests include space weather as well as phenomena between Earth's atmosphere and space.
If AI is able to generate cat videos, could it also be used to model electron movement in magnetoshere?
Cat videos are a long way from space weather - or so you would think. It was nevertheless precisely cat videos created by AI that gave Professor of Computational Space Physicsan insight into a new approach to analysing space weather. The idea was to model infinitesimally small electrons, much like cats, using AI.
"If such modelling succeeds, it would provide a shortcut to modelling space weather without the need for physics-based computing," Palmroth explains.
The idea resulted in Palmroth's term as Academy Professor from 2026 to 2030.
At the mercy of space weather
Palmroth has long focused on space weather in her research. Space weather denotes the interaction of plasma originating in the Sun, known as solar wind, with Earth's magnetic field.
"In its chaotic nature, the phenomenon somewhat resembles atmospheric weather phenomena, but it is several orders of magnitude more complex," Palmroth says.
There are three key reasons for this. The first is scale. While terrestrial weather takes place in the troposphere, the lowest 10 kilometres of the atmosphere, space weather extends millions of kilometres into space along with Earth's magnetic field.
The second is the complexity of interactions. While terrestrial weather phenomena occur in neutral gas, space weather is dependent on electromagnetic interactions.
The third is the limited amount of observational material. Earth has thousands of weather stations, but space weather is tracked only from a few dozen sites.
Will AI provide a shortcut?
Space weather monitoring has nevertheless advanced tremendously. Only 20 years ago, modelling the protons in the atomic nuclei of plasma produced by the Sun was considered impossible. Today, better methods and greater computing power have made this motion decipherable.
However, electrons, which are even smaller, have been too much for even the best supercomputers.
"The mass of electrons is 1/1,836 that of protons, in addition to which they are fast and numerous," Palmroth says.
Electrons bring even high-performance computing to its knees. However, AI may open up a new avenue.
"Instead of computing, we are trying to reconstruct electrons using AI and then supplement physics-based computing with modelling," says Palmroth.
If successful, the solution could produce a more accurate picture of space weather. It is not enough for forecasting, however.
"That's a next-level problem."
The challenging ignorosphere
In addition to the Academy Professorship, Palmroth was appointed to lead the new Centre of Excellence in Space Resilience funded by the Research Council of Finland for 2026-2030. This joint unit of the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, the University of Oulu, the University of Turku and the Finnish Meteorological Institute will continue the research carried out by Palmroth's former Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space.
New legislation in the United States poses challenges for space technology, as it requires new satellites to be placed in lower orbits within the 'igonorosphere', one of the upper layers of the atmosphere.
The idea behind the legislation is good in essence: atmospheric gases slow down satellites, causing them to fall down after five years of use. This way, old satellites are not abandoned as debris.
However, Palmroth is unconvinced by the implementation.
"The ignorosphere is the least-understood environment on the planet," Palmroth says.
"It's located in a borderland where physics is governed by both charged and uncharged particles. This makes its modelling extremely difficult. Sending satellites there makes it difficult to anticipate their trajectories."
The purpose of the Centre of Excellence is to describe the ignorosphere's role in the flow of plasma from the Sun to Earth. Such knowledge can be valuable, for example, in preventing satellites from falling uncontrollably out of their orbits.
Another new initiative involves preparing for extreme space weather phenomena occurring only once in a century or millennium.
"We are increasingly dependent on satellites, which is why we also have to study their functioning during exceptionally intense solar wind eruptions ," Palmroth says.
Teaching freshers
In late November, Palmroth . In the justification, Palmroth is noted to have played a key role in elevating Finland to the top of space research.
"If feels particularly wonderful that the award makes visible the often hidden strategic efforts and the background wrangling going on between various stakeholders. I've spent a lot of time on this work," Palmroth notes.
The Academy Professorship and the Centre of Excellence would certainly be enough to keep Palmroth busy for the next few years, but she wishes to continue to teach freshers.
"Young people are a source of energy, and they are after all our future. This is why I wish to be part of their journey to the stars."
