Merging Space Weather With NOAA's National Weather Service

Abstract

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center (SEC) is the principal U.S. governmental agency for providing space weather data, information, and forecasts across the user spectrum, including industry, other government entities, and the public. A major change in the reporting structure of the center is poised to occur later this year when Congress approves the fiscal year 2005 budget proposed by the Bush administration. The activities of the SEC, together with its proposed budget, will move from under NOAA's research budget and administration to that of the National Weather Service (NWS), which is also administered by NOAA. The weather service will receive augmented funding to accommodate the SEC as one of the service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The move, however, is more than a mere change in the wiring diagram for NOAA's administration. It would appear that NOAA is becoming more serious in recognizing and appreciating the essential responsibility that it, through the SEC, holds for supporting the nation's space environment needs. Indeed, the wording in the NWS portion of the NOAA budget strongly acknowledges this, requesting that Congress “allow the NWS to maintain the SEC's critical forecasts and products in support of the Nation's energy and telecommunications industries, NASA, and the [U.S. Department of Defense].” The SEC has long had, as a part of its mission, a research component. This activity allows the center to maintain an awareness of, and contribute to, advances in solar-terrestrial research, especially as applied to space weather. The NOAA budget for FY2005 suggests that this will continue as the SEC comes under the NWS umbrella, stating that the center “will continue to support the research framework necessary to ensure that new research findings are utilized.” We hope this will continue to be the case over the long term. In addition, the National Weather Service has a long history of interacting with private suppliers of weather information and providing value-added products. Such private-public interactions have sparked tensions in the past between the weather service and the atmospheric weather community, similar to concerns now beginning to be felt in the space weather community (see the related article on this topic by Genene Fisher in Space Weather). We hope the experiences encountered, and lessons learned, in the space and atmospheric weather communities will be beneficial to all parties as private-sector space weather services become stronger over time and as the SEC continues to grow in its service to all users. Louis J. Lanzerotti is Editor of Space Weather, a distinguished research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a consulting physicist at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Laboratories.