Inputs solicited by COSPAR/ILWS Space Weather strategic planning activity

COSPAR and the International Living With a Star (ILWS) steering committee have commissioned a strategic planning activity (or roadmap) focusing on the ability to understand and forecast those elements in the coupled space environment related to changing conditions on the Sun that are pertinent to the phenomena of space weather.

We welcome input from the research and user communities working in any of field related to space weather. Specifically, we look forward to hearing your views on capability gaps, priorities in essential observables and models. In your opinion, what would be the necessary resources for leaps forward in our capabilities to provide timely, reliable information pertinent to electrical power transmission, navigation and communication, space-based assets and aviation?

We are also interested in collecting information on URLs to space-weather related study reports and on instrumentation opportunities for the near future.

We request your input in pdf format, limited to no more than 2 pages, with full contact information of at least the submitting lead author. All submitted documents will be made accessible to the entire panel and hosted online for open access as supplemental information to the roadmap report. In order for the roadmap panel to be able to digest the submissions we suggest submission at your earliest opportunity:

Please send your input in email to: cosparinput@lmsal.com no later than March 1, 2014.

On behalf of the COSPAR SW roadmap team,
Karel Schrijver (chair) and Kirsti Kauristie (co-chair).

 

More information on the roadmap initiative

In the charge to the roadmap panel, the following expectations were formulated:

“The roadmap would cover as minimum:

  • Currently available data, and upcoming gaps
  • Agency plans for space based space weather data (national and international): treating both scientific and monitoring aspects of these missions
  • Space and ground based data access: where current data is either proprietary or where the geographic location of the measurement makes data access difficult
  • Current capability gaps which would provide a marked improvement in space weather service capability.

The outcome should centre on a recommended approach to future developments, including coordination and addressing at least:

  • Key science challenges
  • Data needs, space and ground based
  • Smooth and organised transition of scientific developments into reliable services”

The roadmap team will have two meetings (Nov. 4-6, 2013 in Paris, France; and in mid-April 2014 in Boulder, CO) prior to the 2014 COSPAR assembly in Moscow where the panel’s findings will be presented. Information on the roadmap activity can be found at http://www.lmsal.com/~schryver/COSPARrm.

We encourage you to visit a growing repository of information on existing space-weather related resources being constructed as an initiative of the COSPAR Space Weather Panel, and to add your own input, at: http://www.spaceweathercatalogue.org/