R2O2R Improvements Identified by United States Space Weather Forecasters

Abstract

A communication deficit exists between the space weather research and forecast communities in the research-to-operations-to-research (R2O2R) pipeline. No formal, citable space exists for forecasters to communicate needs and lessons learned to the research community (O2R). This deficit was termed the “valleys of death and lost opportunities” (NRC, 2003, https://doi.org/10.17226/10658) and has resulted in advancements taking up to 20 years or more to become forecast operational. To provide this communication space, we surveyed a group of US civilian space weather forecasters on their needed improvements, use of available resources, and interactions with researchers, via a combination of questionnaire and focus group discussions. Nineteen needed improvements were identified, clustering into four categories: scientific understanding, access to data, forecast office tools, and instrumentation. Participants appeared to prefer resources with a robust data stream of high-resolution and high-time cadence data which suffer few technical issues. Participants want to be included in tool development more often and earlier in the process as they felt they were “seldom listened to when it comes to what [they] actually need.”.