Heliophysics Foundation Models
Models pretrained on full-resolution solar observations to forecast solar flares, solar wind and other space weather.
Tier Grades
Tier A: Frontier AI labs
feasible
IBM and NASA built the 366M-parameter Surya.
Tier B: Indonesian AI labs
stretch
LoRA fine-tuning of a 366M model is small, but space weather is not a shown Indonesian lab focus.
Tier C: Institution units such as ITB
feasible
LoRA fine-tuning of a 366M model on public SDO data fits a university astronomy unit.
Tier D: Organisations such as SEMAI (PoT, PoC, PoV)
not feasible
No delivery use case for space weather is in the use case list.
Where this comes from
Tiers: a) frontier AI labs, b) Indonesian AI labs, c) institution units such as ITB, d) organisations such as SEMAI delivering proof of technology, concept and value. Each rationale cites the anchors below.
Anchors
- ComputeSurya: 366M parameters; fine-tuned with LoRA; training compute not stated in the abstract.
- DataSurya: multi-instrument Solar Dynamics Observatory data, eight AIA channels and five HMI products.
- Team size (proxy)Proxy only (author count of an exemplar paper, not a headcount): 33 authors on the Surya paper (arXiv 2508.14112).
- Time horizonYears.
- Shelf-life signalsSurya is described as the first heliophysics foundation model to use time advancement as a pretext task.
- Pipeline roleTier A releases the model; Tier C fine-tunes it on public SDO data; Tier B and Tier D have no observed role.
Where this comes from
Team size is a proxy (author counts of exemplar papers), not a headcount.
Who and What
Links
R&D TopicHeliophysics Foundation Models
Models
SuryaIBM, scientific
SuryaIBM, scientificUse Casesnone recorded
Who Runs Itnone recorded
Papers
- A Machine Learning Dataset Prepared From the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory MissionRichard Galvez et al., arXiv preprint, 2019 founding
- Surya: Foundation Model for HeliophysicsSujit Roy et al., arXiv preprint, 2025 state of the art
Where this comes from
The papers to read first: where the direction began, its current best, and a survey when one exists.
Sources
- arxiv.org/abs/2508.14112 https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14112
To cite this page: Project AURION, AI Use-Cases Research & Innovation, "Heliophysics Foundation Models", https://aurion.semai.id/topics/heliophysics-foundation-models/, records of October 2026.