Issued: 6 October 2023
It’s World Space Week 2023 with today also marking one year since the official opening of the Bureau’s Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre (ASWFC).
As the nation’s official source of space weather forecasts, alerts and warnings in Australia, the Centre offers vital information for owners and operators of critical infrastructure and technologies to make decisions on risk-mitigation actions against the effects of significant space weather.
ASWFC Manager Dr Kate Brand said in the past year, the team at Lot Fourteen had forecast or observed six significant space weather events.
“While we are consistently monitoring the Sun’s activity, significant geomagnetic space weather events are those we observe or forecast to be at or above level 3 on the global ‘G-scale’,” Dr Brand said.
“We also use the ‘S-scale’ and ‘R-scale’ to determine the extremity of solar radiation and radio blackout events and those above level 4 on their respective scales we determine as significant,” she said.
“Significant space weather can disrupt or damage critical infrastructure assets on Earth, as well as in space, such as satellites.”
“Over the next few years, as we head toward Solar maximum – the most active point of the Sun’s 11-year cycle – we can expect to see an increase in space weather events.”
Australia has a long history of involvement with space weather since 1947 – through the Australian Government’s Ionospheric Prediction Service – culminating in space weather joining the Bureau in 2008 and the formal opening of the ASWFC in October 2022.
The Bureau has a strong and growing presence in the space sector, providing information and services on space weather and the space environment.
Bureau Space Manager Zandria Farrell said the Bureau’s new spaceflight capability included launch and space situational awareness, which supported Australia’s emerging space technologies and industry.
“By combining our meteorological and space weather expertise, we can help reduce risks to mission success and provide essential support for safe spaceflight activities,” she said.
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