Dear Colleagues,
Predicting the ambient solar wind three days ahead remains one of the most significant open problems in heliophysics. This is why we are engaging the community to drive SOTA in operational conditions.
We are pleased to share the FDL Benchlab Solar Wind Prediction 2026 AI Tournament, a live operational AI competition designed to test whether machine learning systems can produce robust 72-hour ambient solar-wind forecasts under realistic forward-time constraints.
Benchlab is a Frontier Development Lab initiative in partnership with CU Boulder, Queen Mary University of London and NASA.
Key information:
-
True Operational Conditions: Unlike traditional static competitions, this tournament tests models inside a live, constraint-driven operational inference loop. Your workflows will run continuously to generate forecasts against future, unseen ACE solar-wind data.
-
Prizes & Impact: Compete for a share of a $20,000 cash prize fund. Winners will co-author a joint technical paper with the organizing committee, and the top-performing model will be integrated directly into the live operational suite.
We encourage interdisciplinary teams to combine your domain expertise in solar physics with data science to build robust prediction architectures.
Pre-register your team here: Solar Wind Prediction 2026 — Frontier Development Lab USA
For full competition details, technical requirements, and to learn more about the Benchlab ecosystem, visit the competition website. Join us for the official briefing September 1, 2026
