Ionospheric research and space weather services

This paper concentrates on those major areas where our current physical understanding and recent advances can lead to positive predictions of the expected effects of ionospheric activity on the near-Earth space environment and on technological systems which operate within this environment. It briefly describes some of the key links between solar activity and the various physical processes, which govern ionospheric plasma structure that has been under scientific examination over past several decades but has lately received significant importance in relation to the space weather services. Specific examples during extremely intense solar event show how ionospheric monitoring techniques that have contributed immense data sets and related empirical and theoretical formulations have been incorporated in different ionospheric specification and prediction models for real-time operational applications. Finally, the general question of what might be expected as a result of current activities within different European cooperative projects is addressed.