Session 5 - Working with Space Weather Services, Now and in the Future

Alexi Glover (ESA), Peter Thorn (Met Office)
Tuesday 6/11, 09:00-10:30 & 11:15-12:45
MTC 00.10, Large lecture room

This session will invite space weather service users from a broad range of domains to address both current use of space weather services and future needs. Focus will be on the period of severe space weather activity in September 2017 in terms of recent experience, with consideration given to the potential impact from a more extreme “Carrington”-like event. The presenters will be encouraged to discuss their experience in utilising space weather products and services and, where possible, any observed impacts on their operations and/or systems resulting from the September events, or other recent experience. User requirements for new or improved space weather services, will be discussed taking into account both current experience and expected evolution within the user domain in the coming years.

The two plenary sessions during ESWW15 will be linked by the theme of extreme event response to mitigate the impacts within and between user domains. Taking the – severe but not extreme – space weather events of September 2017 as a guide, the two sessions will conclude with 45min panel discussions. The panel will address key questions relating to high priority needs for actionable space weather information and consider how the events observed in 2017 might scale in the case of an extreme “Carrington”-like event, and the information that would be expected from a space weather service in these circumstances. The Tuesday session will address the user perspective on these scenarios, and the outputs of the discussion will feed into the Thursday discussion which will focus on corresponding space weather service capabilities and development needs.

Read the Sept 2017 activity summary

Click here to toggle abstract display in the schedule

Talks : Time schedule

Tuesday November 6, 09:00 - 10:30, MTC 00.10, Large lecture room

09:00	Introduction	Glover, A et al.	Oral
	Alexi Glover
	ESA
	Introduction to the session
09:10	Operational Preparedness for Geostationary satellite Operators	Pitchford, D et al.	Oral
	Dave Pitchford
	Airbus, SES, Met Office
	A recap of the space weather concerns a Geostationary spacecraft operator has and the potential impacts on the satellite platform will be presented. Good mitigation actions are derived from prior preparation. We will discuss the preparations that have taken place over years to understand the spacecraft, understand space weather data & forecasts available and how some of the ‘gaps’ between scientist, forecaster & spacecraft operator have been ‘bridged’. Finally, we will review the challenges, concerns and lessons learned from the September 2017 event.
09:30	Space Weather Impacts on Railway Networks	Lochman, L et al.	Oral
	Libor Lochman
	CER
	Space weather has got a potential to cause damage to the railway system although risks of incidents does not seem to have high probability. In addition to the direct impact on the rail technology, the rail services could also be vulnerable to the impact of space weather events on third parties (e.g. power sector). Given this, and recognising that many of the anticipated impacts of space weather on rail are based on theory rather than experience, more clarity on the cost of inaction should be analysed as a first step before considering systematic actions by and for the Rail Sector. System of alert from space observatory and relevant information material for critical infrastructure owners seem to be at this stage the most pragmatic way forward. Common approach between competent authorities (space and rail safety authorities) and the Sector should be the target.
09:50	GEO Satellites Withstanding Space Weather: Eutelsat's experience	Zamora, D et al.	Oral
	David Zamora
	Eutelsat
	Safety of flight is a major concern for Eutelsat and this is taking into consideration from satellite procurement till end of life. In particular, satellites procured by Eutelsat shall withstand Space Weather events. We will present how Eutelsat satellites are designed and tested to be tolerant to space environment together with our historical experience and, in particular, the September 2017 events. Current use of space weather services and our expectations from space weather services will also be recap.
10:10	Space weather information for aviation: past experience, status and progress	Robert, E et al.	Oral
	Emilien Robert
	Eurocontrol

Tuesday November 6, 11:15 - 12:45, MTC 00.10, Large lecture room

11:15	Reopen session	Glover, A et al.	Oral
	Alexi Glover
	ESA
11:20	The use of Space Weather information as part of EGNOS performance monitoring activities	Magdaleno, S et al.	Oral
	Sergio Magdaleno
	ESSP-SAS
	Space weather events are well known to affect GNSS and SBAS systems due to the impact they have over the geomagnetic behaviour of the ionospheric layer of the atmosphere. Disturbances related to space weather events are one of the biggest concerns of users enabled with single frequency satellite navigations equipment. ESSP, as the EGNOS service provider, monitors the impact of this kind of events in the performance experienced by the EGNOS users. For this activity the use of Space Weather indicators, from different sources, is key to detect and characterize the existing relationship between the events detected and the impact observed at user level. The objective of this session is to present briefly the performance monitoring activities done by ESSP, focusing in those which require the use of Space Weather indicators. Some examples based on real events will be presented to give a clear understanding of the impact of Space Weather in EGNOS performance, and what activities are being done to identify what are the indicators which present a highest correlation with the performance of EGNOS.
11:40	UK Government Response to Space Weather	Prowse, M et al.	Oral
	Mark Prowse
	UK Energy Resilience, BEIS.Gov.UK
	Space weather presents a significant risk to society's critical infrastructure and individual wellbeing. The UK government has recognised this in its National Risk Register. In this talk, the UK government's senior responsible officer on space weather risk describes the mitigating organisational and action plans it has established to prepare the UK for severe space weather events.
12:00	Panel discussion	Glover, A et al.	Oral
	Alexi Glover, Peter Thorn

Posters

1	OFRAME: connecting space weather research and applications in France	Dudok de wit, T et al.	p-Poster
	Thierry Dudok de Wit[1], Alexis Rouillard[2] and OFRAME team
	[1] LPC2E, Orléans, [2] IRAP, Toulouse
	The French space-physics community offers numerous datasets, services and tools for space weather. However, the transition from science to operations has been slow because of the lack of interaction between the scientific community and end users. OFRAME is a recent national initiative that has been set up in response to the growing interest by end users in space weather. The initiative aims at coordinating space weather activities of research groups; its ultimate goal is to facilitate the interaction with end users and the provision of data, tools and scientific expertise on space weather. OFRAME is supported by CNES, CNRS, CEA and ONERA.
2	Regional Warning Center Sweden	Wintoft, P et al.	p-Poster
	P. Wintoft, M. Wik, U. Brändström, M. Yamauchi, T. Sergienko, J. Kero
	Swedish Institute of Space Physics
	Regional Warning Center Sweden, part of International Space Environment Service, is hosted by Swedish Institute of Space Physics since 2000. We provide observations and predictions that are automatically delivered in real time. The observations come from magnetic measurements from southern (variometer) and northern (observatory) Sweden, all-sky cameras, and riometer, and various derived products relevant for space weather. Predictions of geomagnetic indices (Kp, Dst, AE/AU/AL) and 30-minute maximum rate-of-change of horizontal magnetic fields are provided with up to a few hours lead-time based on upstream solar wind data. Much of the model development builds on externally funded work from EU (FP7, H2020) and ESA SSA. The predictions relies on a number of data sources from which we collect data in real time for model inputs and verification: NOAA/SWPC DSCOVR solar wind data, GFZ Kp index, WDC-Kyoto Dst index. In addition to the automatic service we also collect, monitor, and analyse other relevant data when required, such as SDO solar data and derived products, reports of solar activity, and predictions of the solar wind. The products are publicly available as a web service, but we also communicate directly with users when required, as for example during the September 2017 events.