ESA Space Weather System - Status and Prospects

Space Weather, the dynamic variation of the environment in space resulting from the solar activity, is a potential threat to many elements of the human made infrastructure in space and on the ground. European Space Agency (ESA) has been developing the ESA Space Weather System since the start of ESA Space Situational Awareness Programme in 2009. Space Weather System development is now part of ESA Space Safety Programme. The Space Weather System development aims at mitigating and preventing the effects of space weather on vital infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Current space weather system development activities include implementation of the Vigil deep space mission to enhance monitoring of the solar activity, Aurora mission to continuous monitoring of the Auroral zone on both hemispheres, nanosatellite constellation for space environment monitoring and studies on future missions to improve monitoring of the Earth radiation belts for operational applications, and radiation monitoring of the cislunar environment. Already implemented elements of the ESA Space Weather System include hosted payload missions, Space Weather Service Network providing pre-operational space weather services to end users, and a data system allowing use access to all ESA space weather data.

This presentation will outline the status of the implementation of the ESA Space Weather System, its objectives, observation requirements, and data utilization to produce services to the end users. The focus of the presentation will be on space weather monitoring and opportunities for international collaboration to achieve an efficient and sustainable global space weather observation system. Data sharing, access and standardization/harmonization for efficient data utilization will be included into the discussion.