SIDC Space weather services
Responsible person: Eva Robbrecht
Overall description
The SIDC group is the World Data Center (WDC) for the Sunspot Index since 1981 and
the Regional Warning Center (RWC) of the International Space Environment Service (ISES)
for Western Europe since 2000. The SIDC group is actively involved in the ESA SWENET
network. We monitor the solar and geomagnetic activity over time scales from the solar cycle
(the sunspot index) down to real-time flaring alerts. Space weather messages are produced by
a daily operator and by automated data processing.
In the past years we have built up considerable IT infrastructure
for the monitoring of solar activity (http://sidc.be/SWB ), for the automated
detection of coronal mass ejections (http://sidc.be/cactus, http://sidc.be/nemo)
as well as for the logistic handling of incoming/outgoing space weather messages
over the ISES network ('previmaster', http://www.sidc.be/products/) and the collection
of sunspot observations from stations worldwide (WOLF interface, http://sidc.be/WOLF ).
The present work package deals with the maintenance, development and further expansion of
the operational service of space weather monitoring, alerting and forecasting.
Long Term Goal
In the US, space weather services are significantly ahead of Europe. The Space Weather Prediction
Center (SPWC) operated by NOAA in Boulder is the reference for space weather services, also
for European users. Our long term ambition is to grow into a European equivalent of the SPWC
with complementary and/or improved services.
