1. Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Users Perspective
I’ve been asked to share AFSPC view of space weather from an SSA users perspective
29 April 2009
Col Shawn Barnes
AFSPC/A5C
This briefing is for information only. No U.S. government to sell, loan, lease, co-develop or co-produce defense articles or services is implied or intended

2. Purpose
Communicate the importance of a robust space environmental sensing, data sharing and information processing infrastructure to support US SSA needs
What I hope to accomplish is to communicate our recognition of the importance of an robust, operational space weather infrastructure to support the nation’s SSA needs.

3. Overview Space Systems/Services Impacts
Space Situational Awareness (SSA) & the Environment
Environmental SSA Components
Need for Partnerships
To set the stage I will first summarize quickly several examples of space weather related impacts on space systems and services
Then I will define for you SSA and space weather as a component of SSA
I will then describe what we recognize as the necessary pieces of the infrastructure that must be maintained to support SSA
And finally the reality that we MUST continue to work together in an intentional manner to accomplish this task with our limited resources

4. Space Weather—System/Service Impacts
This slide provides a an excellent summary of some of the effects of space weather on systems operating in and through the space environment. Not only do you see impacts directly on the systems themselves, for example satellites and radars, but you also see impacts on the services those systems are intended to provide end users, for example satellite communications. Notice this is not a complete list of impacts nor space weather phenomena, but it serves the purpose of illustrating the connection between space weather phenomena and impacts military operations.

5. The Environment and SSA
To provide you some context for space weather within SSA, this slide depicts and defines the various pillars of SSA…..
…the BLUF on brief is bumper sticker answering why we care about Sp Wx: so we can protect and maintain our space capabilities.
Effects Attribution/Prediction: Protection/Mitigation

6. SSA Definition
SSA: “…SSA involves characterizing, as completely as necessary, the space
capabilities operating within the terrestrial environment and the space domain. It
includes components of ISR; environmental monitoring, analysis, and reporting; and
warning functions….”
Environmental Monitoring: “… includes the
characterization, analysis, and prediction of space weather (e.g., solar conditions),
terrestrial weather near important ground nodes, and natural phenomena .... Operators must be able to differentiate between natural phenomena interference and an intentional attack on a space system in order to formulate an appropriate response.”
Joint Publication 3-14, Space Operations; Jan 2009
In case you wanted an authoritative reference, Joint Publication 3-14, Space Operations, is a publically released document defining SSA and why weather is important to space ops. The diagram illustrates what makes up a complete and necessary picture of the operational space environment. You have many contributing agencies, and there are many who contribute who are not listed (e.g.NOAA). This illustrates the reality that accomplishing SSA to enhance the effectiveness of our nation’s security is truly a national effort.

7. Environmental SSA--Components
OBSERVE environmental conditions
Sensors—Provides eyes on the space environment
PROCESS sensor data
Environmental Models—Actual & forecast picture of the space relevant environment
DETERMINE EFFECTS
Data Fusion—Environmental impacts on system/mission operations
INTEGRATE EFFECTS
Via C2 System
More specifically, the space weather infrastructure support. In order to accomplish this task we divide the environmental aspect of SSA into 4 components:
we need ground and space-based sensors to observe relevant environmental conditions,
weather models process the sensor data into a coherent actual and forecast picture of the global natural and man-altered environment,
data fusion turns the environmental information into useful operational knowledge by characterizing the time and location of effects
, and finally decision relevant data needs to be integrated into the C2 systems. 
These are the general environmental areas you all are familiar with I need addressed to effectively support SSA.

8. National Cooperative Efforts
So through our national infrastructure forecast and specification services provide space weather information to customers operating systems or using services

9. DoD Space Operations USGS LANL NOAA (SWPC)
To meet SSA needs, the Air Force relies on it’s own data sources as well as a significant portion of data from other national agencies like X-Ray and radiation data from NOAA GOES satellites, the energetic particle data from Los Alamos National Lab particles sensors, solar data from NASA’s ACE S/C, magnetometer data from the USGS. This data is processed and turned into products that support military operations world wide.
USGS
LANL

10. } Current Capabilities ACE – Provides ~1 hr warning for storming
So you see currently we rely on this infrastructure to support operaitons. What we need to do is assure capabilities are in place to support SSA operations in the future, so replacement space and ground-based systems that are reaching their EOL need to be replaced. That’s why AFSPC is working with NOAA and NASA on the replacement of the ACE capability, and with NOAA and other partner agencies on the replacement of our space-based ionospheric sensing capabilities. We also work together with AFWA to assure the ground-processing and support infrastructure is in place to support evolving SSA needs.
ACE – Provides ~1 hr warning for storming
SOHO – Imagery – detects Coronal Mass Ejections
GOES – Energetic particles, X-Ray flux and X-Ray images
POES/DMSP – LEO space wx ionospheric sensors
SEON – Ground-based solar observatories
DISS – Ground-based ionospheric measurements
TEC – GPS-derived ionospheric measurements }

11. Summary
SSA is critical to protecting space systems and providing assured space services—military, civil, and commercial
Need for robust SSA infrastructure
Continue planning and budgeting for space environment capabilities
Bigger challenge than any one on us can tackle
Opportunities: Effective Partnerships—Cross Agency, Academia, and International
From a US perspective, having a robust SSA infrastructure is essential to protecting our Nation’s space capabilities. We can not afford to have any aspect of this infrastructure deteriorate, but need to seek ways to improve upon this capability. The DoD sees it can not go it alone in the current budget constrained climate. Success will require effective partnerships not only with other agencies, like NOAA, NASA , and we need to seek ways to include academia and the international community to address all aspects of our nation’s SSA capabilities.