International Space Weather Initiatives

Space Weather is a rapidly growing field world-wide with many international collaborations being set up to further understand the processes driving space weather and the influences they can have on human health and technological systems.

• International Space Environment Service (ISES)
• Living with a Star (LWS)
• International Solar Terrestrial Physics Science Initiative (ISTP)
• Space Weather Initiatives within Europe
• Space Weather Initiatives outside Europe 
• Some More Collaborational Space Weather Initiatives 

International Space Environment Service (ISES)  

The mission of the ISES is to encourage near-real-time international monitoring and prediction of the space environment by: the rapid exchange of space environment information; the standardization of the methodology for space environment observations and data reduction; the uniform publication of observations and statistics; and the application of standardized space environment products and services to assist users reduce the impact of space weather on activities of human interest.

Three basic functions accomplish the task of the ISES. First, the International URSIgram Service provides standardised rapid free exchange of space weather information and forecasts through its Regional Warning Centers (RWC). Second, ISES prepares the International Geophysical Calendar (IGC) each year. This calendar gives a list of ‘World Days’ during which scientists are encouraged to carry out their experiments. And third, the monthly Spacewarn Bulletins summarize the status of satellites in earth orbit and in the interplanetary medium.

At present, eleven Regional Warning Centres exist. These are located in China (Beijing) , USA (Boulder), Russia (Moscow), India (New Delhi), Canada (Ottawa), Czech Republic (Prague), Japan (Tokyo), Australia (Sydney), Sweden (Lund), Belgium (Brussels) and Poland (Warsaw). A data exchange schedule operates with each centre providing and relaying data to the other centres. The centre in Boulder - the NOAA Space Environment Centre (SEC) - plays a special role as "World Warning Agency", acting as a hub for data exchange and forecasts.

The NOAA Space Environment Centre  

The Space Environment Center (SEC) provides real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events, conducts research in solar-terrestrial physics, and develops techniques for forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances. SEC's Space Weather Operations Center is jointly operated by NOAA and the U.S. Air Force and is the national and world warning center for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in the space environment.

The SEC also organises a yearly user conference and space weather research to operations workshop. These are combined and take place during Space Weather Week, held in Boulder, Colorado.

Living with a Star Programme  

The "Living With a Star" programme is a space weather focussed and applications driven research programme. Its goal is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

Living with a Star addresses the cross-disciplinary nature of space weather in 4 different research areas:

• Space Science: LWS quantifies the physics, dynamics, and behavior of the Sun-Earth system over the 11-year solar cycle.
• Earth Science: LWS improves understanding of the effects of solar variability and disturbances on terrestrial climate change.
• Human Exploration and Development: LWS provides data and scientific understanding required for advanced warning of energetic particle events that affect the safety of humans.
• Aeronautics and Space Transportation: LWS provides detailed characterization of radiation environments useful in the design of more reliable electronic components for air and space transportation systems.

International Solar Terrestrial Physics Science Initiative  

A collaborative effort by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Institute of Space and Astronuatical Science (ISAS) of Japan, the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Science Initiative combines scientific communities on an international scale using several space based missions, complementary ground facilities and theoretical efforts, to obtain coordinated, simultaneous investigations of the Sun-Earth environment over an extended period of time.

The primary science objectives of the ISTP Science Initiative are as follows:

• Determining structure and dynamics in the solar interior and their role in driving solar activity.
• Identifying processes responsible for heating the solar corona and its acceleration outward as the solar wind.
• Determining the flow of mass, momentum and energy through geospace.
• Gaining a better understanding of the turbulent plasma phenomena that mediate the flow of energy through geospace.

Implementing a systematic approach to the development of the first global solar-terrestrial model, which will lead to a better understanding of the chain of cause-effect relationships that begins with solar activity and ends with the deposition of energy in the upper atmosphere.

The ISTP Science Initiative uses simultaneous and closely coordinated measurements from GEOTAIL, WIND, POLAR, SOHO and Cluster. These measurements of the key regions of geospace will be supplemented by data from Equatorial missions and ground-based investigations. The Equatorial missions include: the Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Spacecraft (GOES) Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL) spacecraft from the Department of Energy (DOE). The ground-based investigations include:

• SUPER-DARN - Dual Auroral Radar Network
• CANOPUS - Canadian Auroral Network for the Origin of Plasmas in Earth's Neighborhood Program Unified Study
• SESAME - Satellite Experiments Simultaneous with Antarctic Measurements
• Sondrestromfjord Incoherent Scatter Radar

Additional data from other satellites such as NASA's IMP-8 satellite are used to supplement the data from these missions.

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