National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Services—Our Nation’s First Line of Defense against Space Weather Storms

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is involved in many initiatives to address our Nation’s vulnerability to, and preparedness for, space-weather events. Space weather can disrupt the performance and reliability of space and ground-based technological systems, with cascading impacts on critical infrastructure sectors such as communications, transportation, energy, and water supply.

NOAA works closely with Federal Departments and Agencies, the commercial sector, academia, and international partners to provide critical observations and predictions, to advance operational space weather modeling, and to inform and validate space weather research. Important new initiatives will soon commence which will see new responsibilities for NOAA. These include the announcement by the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization that NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center will be one of three centers worldwide for the provision of space weather services for global aviation. NOAA will also work closely with NASA to provide space weather information in support of the recently announced human space exploration campaign.

NOAA plays a key role in National policy initiatives at the White House and will co-lead efforts to implement the newly released National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan. This poster will highlight NOAA’s National Weather Service efforts to build a Nation that is ready, responsive, and resilient to space weather and how achieving this goal involves the entire space-weather enterprise working together. In partnership, we will achieve better forecasts and warnings, consistent and intelligible products, and improved security and resilience of critical technologies and infrastructures.