Dashboard display of solar weather #19

Abstract

As society’s reliance on technological systems grows, so does our vulnerability to space weather. It is becoming increasingly important to be able to study and observe space weather and to predict events and conditions on the Sun and in near-Earth space. Timely delivery of space weather data and information enables us the ability to develop preventative or mitigating plans to reduce potentially harmful societal and economic impacts. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is NOAA’s official source of space weather alerts, watches, and warnings. It is the primary warning center for the International Space Environment Services (ISES). The SWPC has a key role in providing real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events, exploring and evaluating new models and products, and overseeing their transition into operations. It maintains a website with a dashboard display for summarizing the vast amount of space weather data collected from numerous ground- and space-based systems. The purpose of this chapter is to review how digital dashboards have been effectively used by NASA and NOAA to visualize, communicate, and manage solar weather data for at-a-glance monitoring. In terms of information management, a digital dashboard is considered to be an easy to read, often single page, real-time user interface, enabling graphical presentation of data in a visual manner at a very high level. Such dashboards are becoming an integration of information management and decision support systems. This has proven to be a useful way of consolidating and displaying space weather products, as well as the preferred mode for the SWPC to relay summaries, warnings, and alerts to its user community. Dashboards are able to centralize information and offer users the ability to create customized views on a web-based interface. NOAA products can be readily displayed providing near- and long-term forecasts and trends related to geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms, radio blackouts, and other solar events. For example, the SWPC dashboard provides near-real-time measurements from about 40 types of space weather operational products from GOES satellites, ground-based magnetometer measurements, and spacecraft, such as NASA’s ACE and NASA/ESA’s SOHO. The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is a multiagency partnership that provides the international research community with access to modern space science simulations. It is also responsible for developing advanced, online, visualization and analysis tools to facilitate a link between the research community and operational users and forecasters. The CCMC has developed dashboard systems, including the Space Weather Scoreboard, the Integrated Space Weather Analysis (iSWA), and the Database Of Notifications, Knowledge, and Information (DONKI). This chapter discusses some of the latest developments in dashboard displays for space weather monitoring and data dissemination. It first reviews the socioeconomic impact of space weather and the need for reliable communication and monitoring of solar observation data for the general public. Digital dashboards are described in general, as well as specific examples of how they are applied by NASA and NOAA for space weather data display. Examples of digital dashboards are reviewed including the iSWA and DONKI systems developed by the CCMC. Finally, the benefits and challenges of developing, implementing, and using digital dashboards for solar weather monitoring are discussed. In general, dashboard displays offer a robust and integrated system for providing information about past, present, and future space weather conditions. Providing a web-based interface, information enables public access to real-time imagery and information via the Internet and mobile devices. There are also a range of web tools available, enabling the user to customize the interface to suit unique data and forecasting requirements. Such technological developments encourage the continual availability and free exchange of space weather data and products worldwide for real-time forecasting and monitoring of space weather. Dashboard display and visualization tools support a multitude of planners and decision-makers for taking proactive measures to mitigate the impacts of potentially damaging space weather events.