COSPAR ISWAT Website is Live! 

We are pleased to announce the launch of the ISWAT website https://iswat-cospar.org to serve as an online presence for the International Space Weather Action Teams – a community coordinated effort hosted by the COSPAR Panel on Space Weather.

The COSPAR ISWAT is a global hub for community coordinated collaborations addressing challenges across the field of space weather.

Established and newly emerging teams focused on different aspects of space weather are invited to join ISWAT and become a part of the global space weather community network.

Go to the "Join ISWAT" tab at the ISWAT website  https://iswat-cospar.org to register a Team, or request to join already registered teams.

The ISWAT website is built with a content management platform allowing teams to maintain and update team pages.  Future planned additions are threaded discussion boards and we will also develop and interactive system inviting community inputs to future updates of the global COSPAR ILWS space weather roadmap [Schrijver et al., 2015].

Benefits of joining ISWAT include to:

  • Expose your project or model to the wider community, and bring-in more expertise and ideas.
  • Benefit from the synergy that the coordinated intra- and inter-cluster activities enable.
  • Apply and develop metrics to test and validate your model(s) on certified data sets.
  • Use your data/measurements to challenge/verify the existing and upcoming models.
  • Participate in community-wide campaigns and ensemble forecasts.
  • Develop strong papers on improvements in the physical understanding, modeling, observations/measurements, analyses techniques, assessment activities, etc…
  • Speak with a global voice to international organizations and national/international funding agencies.
  • Participate in next generation strategic planning and provide inputs to future Space Weather Roadmap updates.

The Action Teams are grouped into ISWAT Clusters, by domain, phenomena, impact, or overarching activities.  The three regimes, Sun - Heliosphere - Geospace, cover chains of space weather phenomena linked to major space environment impacts on climate, critical infrastructure (e.g., power grid systems, navigation/communications, (aero)space assets, and human health).  The overarching activities include, assessment, information architecture, data utilisation, and education/outreach.  Entry pages for all Clusters and Team listings can be accessed through clickable links on the Sun-Earth Connections Image at the ISWAT home page.

Success of community coordinated efforts has been demonstrated by the ISWAT precursor - the International Forum on Space Weather Capabilities Assessment (https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/assessment/).  The progress of Forum working teams is highlighted in the AGU Space Weather Journal special issue on space weather capabilities assessment: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1542-7390.SW_CASS.  

To set the stage for ISWAT’s future we are organising an Inaugural working meeting that will be held 10-14 February 2020 at the Radisson Resort, Port Canaveral, Florida, USA.  See the meeting web page for details: 

https://www.iswat-cospar.org/wm2020.  

Action teams are encouraged to take advantage of the working meeting to kick-off of the team collaborations and jump-start new campaigns.  Deadline for Team registration to be included in the meeting Agenda: 13 December 2019.  Participating in the meeting in February 2020, however, is not a requirement.  COSPAR ISWAT is a long term initiative and teams are welcome to join ISWAT at any time.

Come and talk to us in person at Fall AGU!

ISWAT will have a dedicated panel discussion (SM23A, Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 13:40-15:40, Moscone South – 208) and a poster session (SM31C, Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 08:00-12:20, Moscone South – Poster Hall).  We invite all space weather scientists/data providers or related software engineers to come and talk to us to get involved in ISWAT.

We particularly welcome early career scientists: Masters and PhD students and Post-Docs.  ISWAT is a long term initiative. To participate in its activities is a wonderful opportunity to start your career through involvement in an Action Team within an ISWAT Cluster of your particular expertise and choice, shaping the future of space weather.