Space Weather Workshop - Air Force Weather

Dr. Fred Lewis of Air Force Weather presented on the subjects of space situational awareness, space weather impacts, the AF space weather roadmap and the way ahead for the Air Force on these matters. There has been significant cooperation with several agencies on space-based space weather sensors (AF Space Command and AF/A30-S/W). Lewis went on to describe the space weather information flow, especially as this supports the warfighter in the field. He also described how space weather impacts the warfighter.

According to Lewis, space-based weather sensors are on-track with AFSPC to have ACE up by 2016-2018. Current ground-based sensors need upgrades or replacement (ionosphere and solar observing), but status is pending on how to deal with this. The objective, however, is to field much higher resolution sensors. Space environment models, working with NASA, AFRL, NRL, NSF and others is under way, using actual data to develop impact calculations. Lewis did say there is progress on NPOESS regarding the lost sensors, but did not go into detail on this dubious program.

In sum, efforts are ramping up in anticipation of the solar maximum sometime in 2013.