The SWx TREC Space Weather Data Portal: bringing data from diverse sources to the community
Abstract
An obstacle to understanding, viewing, and communicating space weather is accessing relevant data. Users spend hours collecting data from disparate sources and repositories. The learning curve for finding relevant data is high, and only the most dedicated make the leap. Datasets are viewed in separate repositories or downloaded and visualized locally with a custom script. It takes specialized skills to bring space weather data together for analysis. This results in space weather often seeming cryptic, invisible, and difficult to grasp. The University of Colorado at Boulders Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center (SWx TREC), is working to lower these barriers. SWx TRECs Space Weather Data Portal found at https://lasp.colorado.edu/space-weather-portal, provides uniform access to data housed in various remote repositories. In this presentation I will show how the SWx Data Portal can address the needs of a broad spectrum of end users: from space weather enthusiasts to educators, scientists, and operational professionals. The SWx Data Portal enables users to quickly view and download disparate data relevant to past space weather events, all in one place. The selected data can be easily compared, overplotted, curated, saved, downloaded, and shared. For example, we will demonstrate how the SWx Data Portal can be used to watch the unfolding of a space weather event from its initiation on the Sun to its journey through space to its impacts on the Earth. The relevant coronagraphs and solar images can be easily selected and aligned in time with X-ray flux and particle data. The solar winds speed, density, and temperature along with magnetic field direction and strength can be traced alongside models of satellite drag, D-Region Absorption, and geomagnetically induced currents. All of these data products can be synced and viewed on one screen. Events can be saved, shared, and submitted to the Data Portal's community Event Library. The SWx Data Portal can help bridge the gap between scientists, forecasters, and stakeholders by allowing graphical exploration of space weather data and events. Such tools that connect disparate space weather data will speed understanding and enable clearer communication to policy makers and the public, ultimately protecting against space weathers social and economic impacts.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFMSM52A..08K