Community Coordinated Modeling Center: Facilitating Space Weather Research, Advancing Forecasting, and Providing Hands-On Opportunities for Education

空间天气是用来描述近地空间环境条件变化的术语，这是由于来自太阳的干扰造成的。加强美国观测、模拟和预测太空天气能力的必要性已得到广泛认可，最近两党通过的PROSWIFT法案（促进太空天气的研究和观测，以改善明天的预测）就是例证。该合同为社区协调建模中心（CCMC）的发展和运营提供支持，CCMC是美国首屈一指的高层大气和日地环境过程建模中心，与空间天气高度相关。CCMC提供对空间科学社区模型的访问，并根据要求为模型提供运行时。具体来说，这项工作将进一步发展电离层-热层-中间层（ITM）研究社区支持的模型，并提供空间天气方面的实践教育和推广。这些活动将包括(1)ITM建模能力的改进，包括低层和中层大气的结合以及更好的模型可移植性和易于升级；(2)安装将ITM系统与磁层耦合的新模式组合；(3)开发了CCMC软件中用于模型输出访问、插值和后处理的新ITM组件，以及从上到下研究ITM驱动因素相对重要性的新工具；(4)增加所有ITM模型和仿真结果的元数据属性；(5)为ITM模型评估项目和社区范围的建模挑战开发新的在线系统；(6)提供新的服务和工具，以支持NSF地球空间设施和空间天气计划。该项目还将继续并扩展CCMC的研究、教育和发展计划（REDI），该计划提供实习机会，并让学生参与CCMC的广泛活动。实习生参与的活动将包括支持教育工作者开设空间天气课程，这些课程将在天文馆和教室中利用空间天气模拟的交互式可视化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Space Weather is the term used to describe changing environmental conditions in the near-Earth space as a result of disturbances originating from the Sun. The need to strengthen the US ability to observe, model, and forecast Space Weather has been widely recognized, as exemplified by the recently passed bipartisan PROSWIFT Act (Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow). This award provides support for development and operations of the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), a premier US center for modeling of processes in the upper atmosphere and the solar-terrestrial environment that are highly relevant to Space Weather. CCMC provides access to space science community models and also provides run-time for models upon request. Specifically, this work will further develop the models for Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Mesosphere (ITM) research community support and provide hands-on education and outreach in space weather. The activities will comprise (1) improvements in ITM modeling capabilities, including incorporation of the low and middle atmosphere and better model portability and ease of upgrades; (2) installation of new model combinations that would couple the ITM system and the magnetosphere; (3) development of a new ITM component of CCMC software for model output access, interpolation and post-processing and a new tool to study relative importance of ITM drivers from above and below; (4) addition of metadata attributes for all ITM models and simulation results; (5) development of new online system for ITM model evaluation projects and community-wide modeling challenges; and (6) provision of new services and tools to support NSF Geospace Facilities and Space Weather programs. This project will also continue and extend the Research, Education, and Development Initiative (REDI) at CCMC that provide internship opportunities and engage students in a broad spectrum of CCMC activities. The activities involving interns will include support for educators with setting up Space Weather courses which would utilize interactive visualization of Space Weather simulations in planetariums and classrooms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.