The USU USTAR Space Weather Center

The Utah State University (USU) Space Weather Center is an initiative by the State of Utah's Utah Science Technology and Research initiative (USTAR) Program to help create a vibrant economy in Utah related to space weather. Located on the USU campus in Logan, Utah, the Center is developing innovative applications for mitigating adverse space weather effects in technological systems. Of the space environment domains that are affected by space weather, i.e., the dynamic changes in the Sun's photons, particles, and fields and their effects on the near-Earth environment, the ionosphere is a key region that affects communication and navigation systems. The USU USTAR Space Weather Center is developing commercial products to reduce adverse effects of a disturbed ionosphere on these types of systems. A core system at USU that is behind products for communication and navigation users is the operational Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) system. We describe early products that are being developed from GAIM output for commercial use. A first example is Space Wx, an iPhone and iPod Touch app that displays the real-time, current global ionosphere total electron content (TEC) along with the space weather drivers to the ionosphere. We also discuss the direction and objectives of the USU Space Weather Center as it will evolve during the next 5 years.