Space Weather Tabletop Exercise: Gauging our Nation’s Preparedness

Space weather events pose a major risk to broad sectors of society from multiple facets of industry to national security. Over the past few years this relevance has been amplified by multiple government actions, including passage of the PROSWIFT Act and establishment of the National Space Weather Action Plan. While small targeted efforts have been made to explore the impact of and develop the response to specific aspects of space weather, to-date no comprehensive exercise has tested the broader national preparedness. Building on a successful Planetary Defense tabletop exercise conducted in February 2022, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has been directed by NASA, NOAA, and NSF to study the technical, logistical, and operational challenges associated with space weather events. This is especially timely as the Sun enters solar maximum, which has already proven to be more active than those of recent solar cycles. Tentatively scheduled for early 2024, this Space Weather Tabletop Exercise (SWxTTX) will bring together agencies across the government; these include NASA, NOAA, NSF, DHS/FEMA as well as potential connections to the DOD/IC community, Dept. of State, OSTP, DOT/FAA, DOE, FCC, state & local authorities, and/or others. The overall objective of this exercise is to identify gaps in the nation's resilience to an extreme space weather event. This will be accomplished by completing the following steps. First, identify the stakeholders affected by an extreme space weather event, and develop specific exercise objectives from their inputs. Second, design a scenario grounded in real physics that best stresses the objectives. Third, evaluate our ability to forecast, detect, communicate, mitigate, coordinate, and respond to the various actions (or “injects”) throughout the exercise. Lastly, identify improvements in the policies and technologies required for adequate response, forecasting, modeling, observations, and monitoring that are needed to advance the Nation’s resilience to space weather events.