Department of Commerce (DOC). Within DOC, NOAA has the mission of describing and predicting the Earth's environment. NOAA's Space Environment Center hosts an operational forecast center and research activities. The forecast center, operated jointly with the US Air Force, provides space weather forecasts and warnings to users in government and industry and to the general public. NOAA maintains unique space weather expertise to assist in the design of new systems and to reduce effects on existing systems. NOAA collects, provides, and archives space environment data from its polar- orbiting and geostationary satellites, from other agencies, and through international data exchange. Research is directed toward understanding processes and interactions as energy leaves the sun, propagates through the interplanetary medium, and arrives at the Earth's atmosphere.
Department of Defense (DOD). The Air Force and the Navy conduct research and development to minimize adverse space weather impacts on operational readiness and to minimize the resources needed to restore these capabilities. DOD develops operational models of the solar- terrestrial system and develops and flight-tests new sensors. To meet daily operating requirements, the USAF forecast center provides basic and specialized support for military electromagnetic communications, surveillance, and warning systems that operate in or through the upper atmosphere or near-Earth space. DOD provides rapid notification to all levels within the military chain of command for decision assistance. USAF and the Navy also operate and fund a variety of ground-based and space-based sensors contributing to the common database, and USAF provides space climatological support for DOD users.
National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF is responsible for maintaining the health of basic research in all areas of the atmospheric sciences. The Foundation supports theoretical, observational, and numerical modeling research with the goals of increasing fundamental understanding of space environment processes and improving space weather predictive capability. Research areas of emphasis are: (1) solar region evolution and eruptive events; (2) interplanetary transport; (3) magnetospheric physics and dynamics; (4) ionospheric physics and dynamics; and (5) upper atmospheric physics and dynamics. Knowledge of the processes which are fundamental to each of these areas is enhanced by a multi-disciplinary approach to investigating the basic mechanisms through which these areas interact.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA will continue its traditional role of space exploration and study of the solar- terrestrial system. NASA's missions in Space Physics, current and planned, are designed to fulfill important complementary requirements: to answer specific scientific questions; to improve and advance our empirical understanding of events and conditions in space; to develop and use new technology; to establish proof of concept and the value of new observational methods in space; to develop a database that determines the empirical nature of space weather conditions; and generally to observe and interpret the variable corpuscular and electromagnetic radiation that emanates from the sun and affects the space environments of Earth and other planets. Much of the Space Physics research grants program also contributes to developing basic principles and methods by which space weather may be understood and accurately described.
Department of the Interior (DOI). Within DOI, the US Geological Survey (USGS) manages a growing international network of 60 or more geomagnetic sensors (INTERMAGNET), many of which contribute data in real-time to the USAF forecast center for hourly computations of geomagnetic indices. The data are also valuable input to ionospheric and magnetospheric forecasting models. Collection nodes for INTERMAGNET are located in Golden (Colorado), Paris, Ottawa, Edinburgh, and Kyoto. The monitoring network contributes to natural disaster mitigation by providing the information needed to quickly and accurately assess significant changes in the Earth's magnetic field (geomagnetic storms).
Department of Energy (DOE). Within DOE, Defense Programs supports research concerned with space weather in the context of its missions regarding nuclear event detection by satellite surveillance. Programs in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy are concerned with space weather issues regarding possible impacts on electrical energy transmission. Research programs in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences are concerned with fundamental aspects of solar- terrestrial interactions.