What Space Weather is about
‘Space weather’ refers to physical conditions at the Sun, in the solar wind and in near-Earth space that can influence the operation of spaceborne and ground systems and affect human health.
The Sun causes ‘storms’ within Earth’s magnetic shield when giant eruptions from its outer atmosphere wash across our planet.
The objective of the Space Weather Office is to provide owners and operators of critical spaceborne and ground-based infrastructure timely and accurate information to enable mitigation of the adverse impacts of space weather. In order to achieve accurate and reliable services for customers, constant monitoring of the Sun and the space environment from a range of vantage points is needed, together with timely dissemination of reliable data to those needing the information.
ESA‘s SSA Space Weather (SWE) Service Network
Europe already has a wealth of expertise and assets providing high-quality scientific observations, results and models in the domain of space weather, together with a growing number of space-weather ‚products‘ − processed, usable data − which are being used by customers across Europe in industry, government and research institutes.
ESA‘s SSA Space Weather (SWE) Service Network builds firmly upon this foundation to implement a federated European Space Weather service provision concept, avoiding duplication and ensuring that these existing assets and resources play a key role in Europe‘s new coordinated Space Weather Service provision system.
Space Weather Online Services
The Space Weather Service Network aims to provide timely and reliable space weather information to end users. Individual products, reports, toolkits and user support are grouped into targeted services according to the needs of user communities from spacecraft operators through to power system operators.
The online component of the SWE Services can be accessed via the SWE Portal. These online services are complemented by the SWE Helpdesk which is available to respond to queries and requests for support from registered users.
The Space Weather Network is currently in an intensive development phase targeted at developing both service user-tailored interfaces and key models as well as other building blocks that will contribute to improving the accuracy of the information that can be provided to end-users.
Visit the SWE Portal!