Forecasting solar wind conditions at Mars using transfer learning

The solar wind and its variability is well understood at Earth. However, at distances larger than 1AU the is less clear, mostly due to the lack of in-situ measurements. In this study we use transfer learning principles to infer solar wind conditions at Mars in periods where no measurements are available, with the aim of better illuminating the interaction between the partially magnetised Martian plasma environment and the upstream solar wind. Initially, a convolutional neural network (CNN) model for forecasting measurements of the interplanetary magnetic field, solar wind velocity, density and dynamic pressure is trained on terrestrial solar wind data. Afterwards, knowledge from this model is incorporated into a secondary CNN model which is used for predicting solar wind conditions upstream of Mars up to 5 hours in the future. We present the results of this study as well as the opportunities to expand this method for use at other planets.