NOAA’s Satellite-based Observations to Support Continuity of Operational Space Weather Monitoring

In October 2020, the President of the United States signed the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act, which put into law the need to provide space weather observational continuity and improvement, as well as incorporating commercial services. This bill directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, U.S. Air Force, Navy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and U.S. Geological Survey to carry out specified space weather activities. In response to the PROSWIFT Act, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is formulating a Space Weather Observations (SWO) programs division. SWO’s primary objective is to collect and exploit a variety of space weather observations from several key vantage points in space. This will in turn enable continuity of the NESDIS-Level Requirements Product Baseline and evolution to support new products.

The SWO programs division will manage NOAA’s Space Weather (SW) Next flight projects to deliver timely and accurate space weather information. The SW Next Program reference architecture is expected to include a mix of NOAA-controlled satellites, partner-hosted instruments, and possibly commercial data sources under the management of appropriate space weather ground and flight project offices. The SW Next Program will ensure accurate and timely delivery of data to its operational users and to the wider space weather community. It envisions a consolidated, enterprise approach to handling data from all sources. In this presentation, we describe key elements of the envisioned data architecture for SW Next. We will discuss plans for implementing the SW Next data architecture at NOAA and the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders.