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Abstract

As readers of Space Weather already know, solar-terrestrial research is important for the design and operation of a large number of critical technical systems important for civil and national security interests. This is prominent in the latest decadal survey of the field by an expert committee under the auspices of the National Research Council (http://www.nap. edu/catalog.php?record_id=13060). The second decadal survey of this research field (the first was conducted in 2002) devotes almost two full chapters to the relevance and importance of the applications of solar-terrestrial research to practical applications. The challenges for predicting and understanding the solar-terrestrial environment are addressed in a full chapter devoted to societal needs. The opening to this chapter, "Societal aspirations for a secure, prosperous, and technologically sophisticated future are increasing influenced by Earth's nearspace environment," is one of the best onesentence summaries that I have encountered supporting a need for deep understanding of the space environment around planet Earth. I would agree with the chapter's statement that "[s]cience cannot now reliably predict, with sufficient warning, the disturbances from space that may threaten society at any particular time." Models and observations are increasing in sophistication. However, many aspects of the coupled system from a solar active region to, for example, a specific ionosphere location where enhanced currents can distort GPS signals, are highly complex and presently unpredictable. Indeed, I once wrote that I considered this example to be one of the "grand challenges in understanding the natural hazards of space weather" (http:// w w w.agu.org/journals/sw/swa /editorial/ article/?id=2009SW000522). Other examples of solar-terrestrial unpredictability and the impacts on technical systems of various types are briefly discussed in the chapter. The report designates the second applications chapter as "Vision for Space Weather and Climatology," discussing policy imperatives and ending with an envisioned space weather and climate program. Such a program, as out-lined, would engage collaboratively and substantively the major federal agencies (NASA, NOAA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Energy) as well as the growing commercial sector. Major policy issues arise from the discussions in these two chapters, issues that are then addressed by two focused and strong recommendations. The first recommendation, a major one, is that because of its critical national importance at the federal level, the National Space Weather Program (NSWP) should be rechartered under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council (http:// www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ ostp/nstc). Such a rechartering would be successful only if the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget were active participants; such collaboration constitutes a part of this recommendation. Implementation of this c...