Distributed networks enable advances in US space weather operations

Space weather, the shorter-term variable impact of the Sun's photons, solar wind particles, and interplanetary magnetic field upon the Earth's environment, adversely affects our technological systems. These technological systems, including their space component, are increasingly being seen as a way to help solve 21st Century problems such as climate change, energy access, fresh water availability, and transportation coordination. Thus, the effects of space weather on space systems and assets must be mitigated and operational space weather using automated distributed networks has emerged as a common operations methodology. The evolution of space weather operations is described and the description of distributed network architectures is provided, including their use of tiers, data objects, redundancy, and time domain definitions. There are several existing distributed networks now providing space weather information and the lessons learned in developing those networks are discussed along with the details of examples for the Solar Irradiance Platform (SIP), Communication Alert and Prediction System (CAPS), GEO Alert and Prediction System (GAPS), LEO Alert and Prediction System (LAPS), Radiation Alert and Prediction System (RAPS), and Magnetosphere Alert and Prediction System (MAPS).