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Space Weather Community Meets Users at Annual Meeting

Once again, the Rocky Mountain Flatirons presented a beautiful backdrop for this year’s annual Space Weather Workshop (SWW) held on 24–27 April 2012 in Boulder, Colorado. Over 350 attendees from 16 countries included researchers, commercial space weather service providers, forecasters, federal agencies, space weather users, and students. This diverse group contributed to, andwas treated to, the usual strong backbone of SWW topics (space weather impacts on infrastructure, prediction modeling, international coordination, and current research). A key focus of this year’s meeting was space weather impacts on satellites and aviation operations, as well as an opportunity to learnmore about the growing government, public, and private sector interests in space weather. SWW historically contains a session on satellites in the agenda; however, this year included an expanded full‐day meeting with representatives from across the space industry. Some of the highlights included speakers from two satellite companies who discussed impacts and concerns about space weather on the commercial satellite industry. Other speakers highlighted the importance of continued improvements in space weather forecasting and called for more emphasis on predictive forecasting versus nowcasting /reactionary services. The aviation community was a second area that received additional stage time at this year’s SWW. A prolonged solar minimum resulted in a considerable lull in some forms of space weather activity. Aviation customers embraced the opportunity to refresh on space weather topics, recent impacts on operations, and new developments as the next solar maximum approaches. This session’s focus was twofold: what do aviation customers need, and what can service providers deliver? Radiation exposure was recognized as a growing concern, and NOAA’s SpaceWeather Prediction Center, the nation’s official source for space weather alerts and warnings, highlighted that it is exploring options to fill this gap. Furthermore, operators, including pilots and dispatchers, called for information to be presented in a more useable fashion, so that when required, immediate action could be taken both on the ground and in the air. One possible outcome from the meeting could be a new NOAA Space Weather Scale based on>100MeV proton observations from NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. Additional information concerning the aviation session can be found at: http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2012SW000828.shtml. The Commercial Space Weather Interest Group Roundtable Session explored the growing public interest in space weather (Figure 1). This attention, and its significance, was demonstrated by a panel that included former NOAA Administrator, VADM Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. (Ret.), representatives from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Virgin Galactic, the latter representing the budding commercial human space flight effort. The importance of private sector, research, and government collaboration was highlighted as the best model to support national interests. Geomagnetic storm mitigation strategies received emphasis in a session on geomagnetic‐induced currents. New results on grid impacts were presented, and improved forecasting through an expanded observation network and improved modeling techniques was discussed. Looking ahead to next year, Space Weather Workshop 2013 is set for 16–19 April 2013, in Boulder, CO. Planning has already begun and it will be an exciting program, identifying the highest priority needs for space weather services and opportunities to discuss relevant research that can be transitioned into operations. See http://www. swpc.noaa.gov/sww/index.html in early 2013 for the conference schedule and to register. The Space Weather Workshop is organized as a partnership among NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, NASA’s Heliophysics Division, theNational Science Foundation’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.