Simulating Space Weather Extremes: A Workshop to Identify Research Needs to Improve Power Grid Resilience to Geomagnetic Activity; Fall 2021 in Washington DC

太空天气可以产生风景如画的极光，但对现代社会所依赖的技术构成了潜在的危险。空间气象研究人员、预报员、最终用户(例如，公用事业运营商)和应急管理界必须共同努力，以了解和减轻这一自然灾害。该项目将于2021年秋季在华盛顿特区召开为期3天的研讨会，届时将使用模拟空间天气事件逐步完成空间天气电网领域每个社区参与的建模、预测和预报、通信和响应阶段。研讨会组委会有代表信息流中每个主要环节的成员。学生和职业生涯初期的空间气象专业人士将积极参与这些活动。将公开一份总结电网应对空间天气的实践情况的研讨会报告。模拟将利用联邦资助的太阳风、地磁指数和地电场数据和模型，以及用于评估地磁扰动对电网影响的开源软件工具。黑客马拉松将帮助识别和构建工具，为空间气象到电网社区提供更好的通信和数据分析支持。研讨会的成果将确定在空间天气对电网的影响方面的研究和开发和操作方面的差距，并帮助改善国家对极端空间天气的反应。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Space weather can create picturesque auroras but poses a potential hazard to technology on which modern society relies. It is essential for space weather researchers, forecasters, end-users (e.g., utility operators) and the emergency management community to work together to understand and mitigate this natural hazard. This project will convene a 3-day workshop in Fall 2021 in Washington DC, in which a mock space weather event will be used to step through the modeling, prediction and forecast, communication, and response stages involving every community in the space weather-to-power grid domain. The workshop organizing committee has members representing each major link in the information flow. Students and early-career space weather professionals will be actively involved in the activities. A workshop report summarizing the state of the practice for power grid response to space weather will be made publicly available.The simulation will make use of federally funded solar wind, geomagnetic index, and geoelectric field data and models, and an open-source software tool for performing assessment of geomagnetic disturbances’ impact on power grids. A hackathon will help identify and build tools that support better communication and data analytics for the space weather-to-power grid community. The workshop outcomes will identify research and development and operational gaps regarding space weather effects on the electric power grid and help improve the Nation’s response to extreme space weather.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.