Tobiska testifies before U.S. House Science Committee
WASHINGTON, DC – SET’s W. Kent Tobiska testifies before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology regarding the impacts, prediction and role of government in space weather. The committee met to examine the current state of research, forecasting and impacts related to space weather and to discuss delineation of roles between the government, academic and private sectors to enable stronger collaboration in space weather research and forecasting.
All three pillars of the national space weather enterprise, including government, academia, and industry, have contributed to building the national asset of space weather strategy and action.
Dr. Tobiska said that while the private sector has established productive space weather partnerships with agencies and academia, there has also historically been tension with federal agencies due to their lack of awareness of current private sector capabilities. He continued:
Across the board on the commercial sector we see it [is] extremely important and very possible that the commercial and the academic and the agency guys sit down at some kind of process. Rather than we all being in a swimming pool right now splashing each other, if we could determine a process to determine our swim lanes that would really help … ease any friction in the future and enable us to best use our resources where [we have] expertise in each area.
Dr. Tobiska recommended that congressional authorization in these bills emphasizes a national Space Weather Actionable Technology (SWAT) concept where space weather industry provides competitive, cost-effective, and abundant data streams for the next generation of space models and systems. He pointed to the successful examples of SET’s Dst, ARMAS, Q–Up, Spot–On, and JB2008 operational data streams, as well as those from other ACSWA organizations, that already provide the information needed to drive advanced space weather models.
Read more here: AIP report on Space Weather Testimony
Dr. Tobiska’s oral and written testimony can be found here: Tobiska written testimony
Dr. W. Kent Tobiska during testimony
