Towards common validation and verification procedures in the ongoing SSA Space Weather Service Network

Abstract

In the framework of the Space Situational Awareness Programme (SSA) of the European Space Agency (ESA), the Space WEather (SWE) segment aims to help end-users in a wide range of SWE affected sectors to mitigate the effects on their systems, reducing costs and improving reliability. In the SWE segment, five Expert Service Centres (ESCs), the SSA Space Weather Coordination Centre (SSCC) and the SSA Space Weather Data Centre (SWE-DC) form the SSA SWE network. This network is providing SWE services to users dependent on space weather conditions. The SWE services are composed of an extensive number of products provided by numerous contributing expert groups. Each product is delivered to the SSA SWE network with a full package of documentation and user guidance. This includes results of validation and verification procedures helping the end-user to identify the appropriate products for each application. The currently diverse procedures for product validation and verification hamper the comparison and evaluation of different products. Therefore, the SWE network aims to harmonize these procedures. Here, an overview of the ESCs product validation assessment and planning for the current activity will be given, including examples of best practice and approaches for common validation and verification procedures.