Space Weather Effects on navigation, communication and remote sensing

Abstract

Mitigating the impact of space weather on key systems and services such as GNSS or RF communications, as well as on ground- and space-based infrastructures such as power grids or satellites, is of critical interest to our society today and in the future. Specific research needs to be carried out to improve our knowledge of the interactions between space weather and human technological infra-structure. Temporal and spatial variations in the solar wind and ionosphere/magnetosphere need to be investigated to address issues related to electrically conductive infrastructure, malfunction of space and ground facilities, effects on satellite drag, and finally the direct impact on radio wave and other communication transmissions. We will present long-term effects of nominal weather changes in space as well as strong solar events, as these can have a huge impact on different areas of our daily life. Furthermore, we will focus on space weather effects in extreme environments at Earth (like the polar region) or in space. We will present the space weather impact on navigation, communication and remote sensing based on results from current and historical space weather data. We like to raise awareness for space weather related threads and will inform about forecast capabilities and possible mitigation strategies.