An international integrated space weather research and education partnership program to engage undergraduate students

Recent work (Damas et.al., 2019) highlighted the Queensborough Community College (QCC) Space Weather Research and Education Program (QCC SWREP) as a successful model that engages undergraduate students in an integrated space weather research and education program through the following experiential learning strategies: 1) an academic year experience where students are engaged in applied research that contribute to the fundamental understanding of space weather's impact on Earth's space environment, life and society, including use and analysis of large data set freely available on the Internet; 2) a 10-week summer research internship at partner institutions where students further their research skills; and 3) opportunity for students to present their work at meetings and conferences. The program partners include the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) based at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA GSFC), NASA GSFC Mission Engineering & System Analysis (MESA) Division, the Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates (ASTRA), LLC., and the City College of New York. Space weather is a global phenomenon that threatens both space-borne and ground-based technological systems, and thus requires international collaboration in order to mitigate its effects. Towards this goal, QCC SWREP has also partnered with the University of Rijeka and Zagreb University of Applied Sciences to institute programs for both student and faculty exchanges. This work will highlight currently ongoing international space weather research and education activities on observation systems design and operations, including CubeSats and Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (SID) monitors, as well as strategies for coordinating and funding international partnerships. A number of developing countries have expressed the desire to develop an integrated space weather research and education program similar to QCC SWREP. Opportunities to partner with these countries will also be discussed.