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Milestones in commercial space weather: the USU Space Weather Center

Milestones in commercial space weather: the USU Space Weather Center. USU Innovation and Invention Awards Reception Thursday, 01 April 2010 W. Kent Tobiska, Director Herbert C. Carlson, Director Strategic Development USU USTAR Space Weather Center. USU Space Weather Center.

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Milestones in commercial space weather: the USU Space Weather Center

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  1. Milestones in commercial space weather: the USU Space Weather Center USU Innovation and Invention Awards Reception Thursday, 01 April 2010 W. Kent Tobiska, Director Herbert C. Carlson, Director Strategic Development USU USTAR Space Weather Center

  2. USU Space Weather Center

  3. What is the USU Space Weather Center’s role ? • Vision: Provide operational SpWx for 21st Century challenges • Mission: Provide global real-time data to reduce SpWx risks • First 9 months product, system, and project milestones: • Product releases: • Space WX iPhone public education app (v1.2) released at Apple • v1.3 released 12 Nov 2009; v1.4.0 release 01 May 2010 • Product demo: Global HF radio 15 MHz ray-trace propagation • System start-ups: • GAIM Global uses 400 GPS stations & 10,000 measurements every 15 minutes to create accurate real-time ionosphere • GAIM Continental U.S. (CONUS) has high spatial resolution • Facility completion: Space Weather Center facility in USU SER building

  4. What is Space Weather? The Sun’s photons, particles and fields that dynamically affect near Earth space and our technology

  5. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections affect the Earth

  6. At Earth, the photons and geomagnetic disturbances ionize the upper atmosphere and create the ionosphere

  7. space weather terrestrial weather The space station and space shuttle fly through the upper atmosphere & ionosphere 50 miles

  8. Human Activities Affected by Space Weather GPS Satellites at 15,000 Miles 240 miles 50 miles

  9. TEC GAIM USU SWC products GPS Logan HF signal TEC

  10. The ionosphere at low and high latitudes can be disrupted by large scale variations which interfere with communications

  11. NOAA space weather warning on September 7 2005: • A powerful solar flare erupts • KATRINA communications affected • U.S. disaster relief workers lost reliability of their backup communication system Hurricane KatrinaAug 29, 2005 HF comm for first responders

  12. Commercial Aviation Routing Incident • September 7, 2005 1931 UT: • A major solar flare occurs • The event creates a complete radio blackout on the sunlit hemisphere • A Chicago to Hong Kong flight on a polar route forced to divert to Anchorage at a schedule penalty of 180 minutes and additional fuel • Per incident-plane costs for route diversions start at $250,000

  13. 6000 planes fly over the U.S. every morning – better geolocation allows them to fly closer together

  14. Where is my iPhone? REPORTED 100 m ACTUAL Severe disruption of GPS can occur from solar flares and geomagnetic storms and the uncertainty grows significantly

  15. Magnetic Storm Over Logan • Oct. 22, 1999, at 2:40 a.m., a switch tripped in the Logan city power system. At the same time, SWC’s Dr. Zhu measured a surge of 200,000 amperes in the ionosphere above Cache Valley. • Garth Turley at Logan Light & Power recalled, “Something happened at Utah Power and Light. Our dispatcher found out we had a trip (power outage) during that time."

  16. The iPhone “Space WX” app • The first real-time space weather application for smart phones • Provides public education about space weather as it is happening • 800 app purchases 01 April 2010 in 37 countries

  17. Where to go from here? • USU Space Weather Center projects • Improve real-time accuracy for GPS single frequency users • Improve real-time radio communication links for aviation, emergency responders and Defense agencies • Upgrade iPhone app Space Wx to bring space weather to the public • Bring on student and faculty contributors to expand USU outreach

  18. BACKGROUND Herbert C. Carlson • University, Dept. Head: National Center • NSF: Program Manager, Aeronomy; created UAF program with 100 PhD’s • AFOSR: Chief Scientist • AFRL: Founded USAF Space Weather Center of Excellence; Fellow • EOARD: Senior Scientist in partnership with European Science & Technology • Royal Astronomical Society of London: Fellow • Norwegian Academy of Sciences: Elected member • United States Presidential Rank Award: SES service (ST-5, 1 of 2 in USAF) W. Kent Tobiska • President and Chief Scientist: Space Environment Technologies • Inventor: operational solar irradiances • Principal Investigator: multiple NOAA, USAF AFRL & AFSPC, NASA projects • Co-Investigator: NASA Galileo and TIMED missions • ISO (International Standards Organization): U.S. Lead delegate for the space environment, author of standards • COSPAR (Comm. on Space Research): Thermosphere & Ionosphere Chair • AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics): Atmospheric and Space Environment Technical Committee Committee Chair; Associate Fellow

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