Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: Space Weather
The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged particles released from the Sun into the solar system. It plays a major role in space weather, which can impact satellites, astronauts, and power systems on Earth. Forecasting the solar wind often depends on detailed maps of the Sun’s magnetic field and complex models of the solar corona, which introduce uncertainty and are not always available.
Owens et al. [2026] present a new approach that uses solar wind measurements near Earth to reconstruct solar wind conditions closer to the Sun. By tracing the solar wind back towards its source, the method provides realistic starting conditions for solar wind models without relying on magnetic maps. The authors show that this approach can produce realistic solar wind conditions while reducing assumptions and sources of error. This simpler set-up allows the method to be applied consistently across different modelling frameworks.
This work represents an important step towards more robust and accessible solar wind modeling. In the long term, it can help improve space weather forecasts and our ability to protect technology and infrastructure in space and on Earth.
Citation: Owens, M. J., Barnard, L. A., Turner, H., Gyeltshen, D., Edward-Inatimi, N., O’Donoghue, J., et al. (2026). Driving dynamical inner-heliosphere models with in situ solar wind observations. Space Weather, 24, e2025SW004675. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025SW004675
—Tanja Amerstorfer, Associate Editor, Space Weather