Abstract This commentary argues that there is an urgent need to develop a scientific consensus on how microwave beams from space‐based solar power (SBSP) satellites will interact with plasma in the ionosphere. Whilst the SBSP concept dates back to the 1970s, it is now gaining traction around the world as a technology that could contribute baseline power critical to achieving Net Zero. Microwave transmission is the most favored option to deliver that power to the ground. Past studies show that we need better understanding of how microwave transmission will interact with the ionosphere and thus how SBSP operations will be constrained by those interactions, especially in strong space weather conditions. We outline how those interactions may limit power transmission and also where they have the potential to interfere with existing radio applications. We suggest actions to raise awareness of these constraints and to provide policy‐makers and operators with robust advice by developing an up‐to‐date scientific consensus on SBSP interactions with the ionosphere.

It is well known that space weather can cause significant disruptions to modern communications and navigation systems, leading to increased safety risks, economic losses, and reduced quality of life. Operators of critical infrastructures (both national and international) are also increasingly aware that extreme space-weather events can have severe impacts on their systems. For example, strong ionospheric disturbances can degrade, and sometimes deny access to satellite positioning, navigation, and timing services, central to the operation of many infrastructures. The mitigation of the effects of space weather on technical systems on the ground and in space, and the development of possible protective measures, are therefore of essential importance. We discuss how space weather drives a wide variety of ionospheric phenomena that can disrupt communications and navigation systems and how scientific understanding can help us to mitigate those effects. We also provide recommendations on further research and collaboration with industrial and governmental partners, which are essential for the development and operation of space weather services.

Abstract Dr. Jennifer Gannon passed away suddenly on 2024 May 2 in Greenbelt, MD. Dr. Gannon had served as an editor for the Space Weather journal since April 2019, and she was the longest‐serving editor on the current board, having started under the previous editor‐in‐chief, Dr. Delores Knipp.

The 3 February 2022 launch of 49 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites has provided a fascinating example of how even modest space weather can have significant practical and financial consequences. Enhanced atmospheric drag associated with a minor geomagnetic storm led to the loss of the majority of the 49 launched satellites. Although the 36th launch by SpaceX in the past 3 years, it was the first that experienced stormy space weather. We expect more stormy space weather as Solar Cycle 25 ramps up toward its peak expected in 2025. A subsequent Starlink launch on 21 February used a higher initial orbit at 300 km, reducing the payload from 49 to 46 satellites, and can be considered an agile response to the space weather losses experienced 2 weeks earlier. Lessons to be learned by the space industry and the space weather community are discussed, including a better dialog, nuanced understanding of space weather risks associated with modest events, but also an opportunity to investigate the space environment in relatively unexplored regions such as very low and high low Earth orbits.

This paper discusses the strategic importance of contemporary ionospheric science. It outlines some key features of the evolution of the science from the first practical experiments in the 1920s through to the diverse inter-disciplinary science of today. This science includes fundamental studies of partially ionised plasmas and of the complex systems that arise when those plasmas are coupled to neutral atmospheres and magnetospheres. However, the science also has great potential to deliver societal benefits if the science can be refined to obtain a deep physical understanding of ionospheric phenomena and that understanding is then transitioned into use by operational services such as forecasts of ionospheric conditions. Thus, ionospheric science is now very similar in form to other environment sciences and, the same as them, needs to be positioned in a diverse scientific culture that supports the full range of science research, including not only curiosity-driven studies, but also targeted research to deepen our physical understanding to a level that is sufficient to enable a transition to operational services. That diversity also includes support for that transition and also facilitates feedback from operations teams to researchers. Such feedback can be a powerful stimulus for future research.

Abstract Manuscripts based on machine‐learning techniques have significantly increased in Space Weather over the past few years. We discuss which manuscripts are within the journal's scope and emphasize that manuscripts focusing purely on a forecasting technique (rather than on understanding and forecasting a phenomenon) must correspond to a substantial improvement over the current state‐of‐the‐art techniques and present this comparison. All manuscripts shall include information about data preparation, including splitting of data between training, validation and testing sets. The software and/or algorithms used for to develop the machine‐learning technique should be included in a repository at the time of submission. Comparison with published results using other methods must be presented, and uncertainties of the forecast results must be discussed.

The Cluster mission was the first constellation using four identical spacecraft to study Sun‐Earth connection plasma processes. Using four spacecraft in a tetrahedron shape, it could measure, for the first time, 3D quantities such as electrical currents, plasma gradients or divergence of the electron pressure tensor and 3D structures such as boundaries, surface waves or vortices. Launched in pairs in July and August 2000, on two Soyuz rockets from Baikonur, the four spacecraft have been collecting data continuously for more than 20 years. The mission faced many challenges during the years of operations as some spacecraft subsystems had a lifetime of a few years beyond the initial two‐year mission. The major one was to operate without functioning batteries and to successfully pass short and long eclipses, up to 3 h long, without damaging the on‐board computers and transmitters and without freezing the fuel. More than 1,000 eclipses have been successfully passed since 2010 using a specially made procedure which switches off the complete spacecraft before entering into eclipse and switches it on when the Sun is again illuminating the solar panels. During 20 years, many discoveries and science results have been published in more than 2,700 scientific papers. A few highlights are presented here, focusing on how varying the spacecraft separation was essential to achieve the science goals of the mission. The Cluster Science Data System and the Cluster archive allows public access to all science data as well as spacecraft ancillary data.

Abstract Severe space weather was identified as a risk to the UK in 2010 as part of a wider review of natural hazards triggered by the societal disruption caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in April of that year. To support further risk assessment by government officials, and at their request, we developed a set of reasonable worst‐case scenarios and first published them as a technical report in 2012 (current version published in 2020). Each scenario focused on a space weather environment that could disrupt a particular national infrastructure such as electric power or satellites, thus, enabling officials to explore the resilience of that infrastructure against severe space weather through discussions with relevant experts from other parts of government and with the operators of that infrastructure. This approach also encouraged us to focus on the environmental features that are key to generating adverse impacts. In this paper, we outline the scientific evidence that we have used to develop these scenarios, and the refinements made to them as new evidence emerged. We show how these scenarios are also considered as an ensemble so that government officials can prepare for a severe space weather event, during which many or all of the different scenarios will materialize. Finally, we note that this ensemble also needs to include insights into how public behavior will play out during a severe space weather event and hence the importance of providing robust, evidence‐based information on space weather and its adverse impacts.

For the UK, the potential impacts from severe space weather (and everyday space weather) are considered of a high importance and hence the UK Government has included “Severe Space Weather” on its National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies since 2011. This is not just considering direct impacts on UK infrastructures, but also impacts to key partner/trading/neighbouring nations. This has led to a long series of national and international engagements and strategic developments both between UK agencies/entities and with international agencies/organisations (such as ESA, NOAA, NASA, COSPAR, ISES, ICAO, WMO, and UN COPUOS). On top of this, the UK has undertaken a series of wide-ranging investigations to mitigate space-weather impacts at the national level including the ongoing development of a national Space Weather Strategy – where the UK looks to experts across all sectors to feed into its development. An essential aspect of trying to mitigate space-weather impacts on the UK is the need for independent UK space-weather forecast capability in collaboration with the other 24/7 space-weather forecasting institutes around the World. This UK capability allows for direct advice to government on all things space weather, particularly on what to do when an impending event is expected and throughout its duration and recovery. Hence, he setting up of a UK staffed 24/7 space-weather forecasting centre at the Met Office alongside the formation of the Space Environment Impacts Expert Group (SEIEG) of experts were undertaken to provide the necessary advice to government. The UK is currently committing a large amount of money both to dedicated UK-based and ESA-based space weather programmes as well as through traditional science research funding channels. This includes the UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk (SWIMMR) programme and the ESA Space Safety Programme. The UK has also taken a lead on several other space-/ground-based space-weather endeavours that are proving highly complementary to current UK and global capabilities. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the above along with any outline of the UK Space Weather Strategy open to the public at the time of the EGU 2020 Meeting.

Space weather phenomena have been studied in detail in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. However, there has arguably been scant analysis of the potential socioeconomic impacts of space weather, despite a growing gray literature from different national studies, of varying degrees of methodological rigor. In this analysis, we therefore provide a general framework for assessing the potential socioeconomic impacts of critical infrastructure failure resulting from geomagnetic disturbances, applying it to the British high-voltage electricity transmission network. Socioeconomic analysis of this threat has hitherto failed to address the general geophysical risk, asset vulnerability, and the network structure of critical infrastructure systems. We overcome this by using a three-part method that includes (i) estimating the probability of intense magnetospheric substorms, (ii) exploring the vulnerability of electricity transmission assets to geomagnetically induced currents, and (iii) testing the socioeconomic impacts under different levels of space weather forecasting. This has required a multidisciplinary approach, providing a step toward the standardization of space weather risk assessment. We find that for a Carrington-sized 1-in-100-year event with no space weather forecasting capability, the gross domestic product loss to the United Kingdom could be as high as £15.9 billion, with this figure dropping to £2.9 billion based on current forecasting capability. However, with existing satellites nearing the end of their life, current forecasting capability will decrease in coming years. Therefore, if no further investment takes place, critical infrastructure will become more vulnerable to space weather. Additional investment could provide enhanced forecasting, reducing the economic loss for a Carrington-sized 1-in-100-year event to £0.9 billion.

Space Weather QuarterlyVolume 16, Issue 3 p. 1-46 Vol.16 No.3Free Access Space Weather Quarterly Volume 16, Issue 3, 2019 First published: 21 October 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/swq.23AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume16, Issue32019Pages 1-46 RelatedInformation

We reconstruct the timeline of the extreme space weather event of May 1921, reviewing a wealth of reports from scientific literature, databases, newspaper reports, and reports by historians and astronomers. A series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) bombarded Earth between 13 and 16 May, as shown by a series of sudden commencements observed across the global network of magnetometers. These CMEs produced three major periods of geomagnetic activity. The first period followed the arrival of two CMEs on 13 May. These may have cleared much density from the inner heliosphere, enabling a subsequent CME to travel quickly to Earth and cause intense activity. Continuing moderate magnetic activity following the first period may also have preconditioned the magnetosphere so it responded strongly to that later CME. This arrived late on 14 May, driving a short period of very intense activity early on 15 May, including technological impacts indicative of strong geoelectric fields. Another CME arrived early on 16 May, driving intense activity similar to that on 13 May. We show how these impacts fit with scientific observations to give a timeline that can be used in worst-case studies/benchmarks. We also show that some impacts were probably coincidental with the storm, but due to more prosaic faults. This sequence of preconditioning, intense geoelectric fields, and their impacts, plus coincidental faults, makes the 1921 event an excellent basis for building space weather scenarios. Such scenarios are vital scientific input to the development and implementation of policies for mitigation of severe space weather.

Space weather is a natural hazard that can adversely affect human missions to Mars, primarily through the adverse of impacts of energetic particles on spacecraft systems and on the health of astronauts. This chapter starts with an overview of these effects, and of their potential to disrupt human missions. This is followed by a discussion of the processes that generate these particles, highlighting that human missions to Mars must consider two distinct classes of particles: a slowly changing low-flux background of very energetic particles originating outside the solar system (galactic cosmic rays) and episodic bursts of high fluxes of slightly lower energy particles originating from the Sun (solar radiation storms). This distinction suggests that mission design should consider a mixed approach to mitigating the effects of space weather: (1) resilient design, including shielding to provide continuous mitigation of effects caused by the low-flux background; and (2) operational measures (sheltering, human troubleshooting) to mitigate the effects caused by radiation storms. The chapter also shows how our scientific understanding of space weather can guide efforts to mitigate these adverse effects: e.g. by flying to Mars when cosmic ray fluxes are lowest; by enabling space weather experts on Earth to provide targeted space weather forecasts so that astronauts are aware of when there is a significant risk that they will encounter a radiation storm; and by flying on-board particle instruments so that astronaut can control how they respond to the actual start and end of radiation storms. Finally, the chapter outlines the observing capabilities needed to support space weather forecasts targeted on human missions to Mars, showing that this will be synergistic with concepts now being developed for better forecasting of space weather at Earth.

Over the last 10–20 years there has been an ever-increasing international awareness of risks to modern society from adverse and potentially harmful – and in extreme cases even disastrous – space weather events. Many individual countries and even international organisations like the United Nations (UN) have begun to increase their activities in preparing for and mitigating effects of adverse space weather. As in the rest of the world there is also in Europe an urgent need for coordination of Space Weather efforts in individual countries as well as in and among European organisations such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union (EU). This coordination should not only improve our ability to meet space weather risks, but also enable Europe to contribute to on-going global space weather efforts. While space weather is a global threat, which needs a global response, it also requires tailored regional and trans-regional responses that require coordination at all levels. Commissioned by the European Space Science Committee (ESSC) of the European Science Foundation, the authors – together with ex-officio advice from ESA and the EU – have over two years assessed European activities in the realm of space weather and formulated a set of recommendations to ESA, the EU and their respective member states, about how to prepare Europe for the increasing impact of adverse space weather effects on man-made infrastructure and our society as a whole. We have also analysed parallel international activities worldwide, and we give advice how Europe could incorporate its future activities into a global scheme.