Industry and Government Officials Meet for Space Weather Summit

Commercial airlines, electric power grids, cell phones, handheld Global Positioning Systems: Although the Sun is less active due to solar minimum, the number and types of situations and technologies that can benefit from up-to-date space weather information are growing. To address this, the second annual summit of the Commercial Space Weather Interest Group (CSWIG) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) was held on 1 May 2008 during Space Weather Workshop (SWW), in Boulder, Colo. The meeting began with a summary by Thomas Bogdan, director of SWPC, on the progress made on action items from the first annual summit, held in June 2007 (see Space Weather, 5, S10002, doi:10.1029/2007SW000348, 2007). Discussions that ensued related to the continued lack of available sources for solar and other data, the lack of a planned follow-on for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft, and the lack of space weather instrumentation on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). CSWIG was especially concerned with the continued lack of knowledge of current SWPC priorities and plans for space weather products. John Kappenman (Metatech Corporation), chair of CSWIG, referred the attendees to the 2006 Report of the Assessment Committee for the National Space Weather Program (http://www.nswp.gov/nswp _acreport0706.pdf), which recommended better coordination between National Space Weather Program (NSWP) agencies and the private sector. Bogdan discussed the status of a planned dedicated server for commercial access, as requested by CSWIG at last year’s summit. Bogdan summarized the challenges facing SWPC, including the lack of availability of key space weather data sets. He anticipates that SWPC will not include some space weather data and products in its core priorities. In light of this, Bogdan said that CSWIG members may be interested in generating for the public the products that SWPC will no longer supply, underscoring that he viewed CSWIG and SWPC as existing in a very important partnership. CSWIG members voiced concerns about the need for advance knowledge of SWPC core priorities so that when CSWIG members develop business plans, the companies do not unintentionally invest in areas where SWPC also plans to commit resources. Mark Gunzelman, then at the Office of the Federal Coordinator of Meteorology (OFCM), which oversees NSWP, spoke about responses to the 2006 Assessment Report and the intent of OFCM to allow the commercial space weather community to actively participate in deliberations of the NSWP Committee. It may be possible to include several members of CSWIG as official representatives and/or technical consultants. Devrie Intriligator (Carmel Research Center) organized and moderated a roundtable session at SWW on behalf of CSWIG. The session’s success in raising appreciation for important space weather issues and the contributions of the commercial sector led Bogdan to announce that such CSWIG roundtables would become permanent features of future SWWs. Summit participants agreed that continued dialogue between CSWIG and SWPC was essential for both commercial and public space weather enterprises. Further, they agreed that another meeting would be held during 2009 SWW and that as-needed teleconferences would be held in the intervening period.