Speaking: Rodney Viereck, Head of Research, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
Space weather refers to the conditions in the space environment that impact systems and technologies both in space and on the ground. The relevant regions of the space environment start at the sun, transits the interplanetary space, encompasses Earth’s protective magnetosphere, and extend down through the ionosphere to the surface of Earth. Much like terrestrial weather, space weather storms come in many forms including solar flares, energetic protons and electrons, and geomagnetic storms. Each type of space weather storm occurs on different time scales and impacts different types of technologies.
In this presentation, Dr. Viereck will provide an overview of space weather, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, and customers who use our products and services. He will describe the methods and techniques that forecasters use to predict space weather as well as some of the development activities that are underway to improve existing models and add new models to the suite of tools currently available to the forecasters. This presentation will conclude with an overview of the space weather process that create the aurora.