During your initial introduction to aviation, you learned at weather in the a atmosphere would directly impact your ability to successfully and safely complete your flying. But mission-impacting weather isn't just an atmospheric phenomenon anymore. It reaches all the Way to the sun.

Forecasters at the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) at Offutt AFB, Neb., are looking at the sun's emissions and creating textual and graphical products that you and your units Combat Weather Team can use as part of your mission's planning and environmental situational awareness programs. (Combat Weather Team [CWT] is the new name of your unit's local weather provider after the current reengineering program. See "Riding the Wings of Change" in Oct 01 Flying Safety. Ed.)

The star that our planet orbits goes through an eleven-year cycle of activity. Right now we are coming off one of the peaks in this cycle that took place in the year 2000. During that year the sun produced a relatively large number of solar flares and "sun spots" which create the peaks in solar emissions that travel to the Earth and interact with our atmosphere. We see some of the interactions when they create the colorful Aurora borealis or "Northern Lights." However, most of the interactions we don't see. Energetic particles ("solar wind") can impact equipment, electromagnetic properties of the atmosphere, and even humans who are exposed.

Satellites and other equipment above the protective levels of the atmosphere are vulnerable to electrical anomalies and a degradation of components due to radiation interference. There can also be increased drag on satellites in low earth orbits.

Electromagnetic signals can be directly impacted by the interference of atmospheric disturbances caused by solar emissions. These disturbances influence HF communications, satellite UHF communications, and GPS navigation signals. They also increase interference or false returns to sun-ward and/or poleward looking radars. Finally, those who track satellites and other objects in orbit can potentially lose their targets because of the changes to the atmosphere.

Also, there can be a health impact to humans exposed to high levels of solar emissions. High altitude aviators and those flying over polar locations can receive extra radiation during periods of high solar activity.

So, is space weather important to you? Well, if your mission involves high altitude or polar flight, if your mission requires HF or satellite UHF communications, or if satellites are critical to your mission, then you need to know about Air Force Weather's commitment to space weather. Under these conditions, the environmental situational awareness of space weather can be as important to you as thunderstorms or other terrestrial weather information.

AFWA provides updated space-weather information at its internet "Joint Air Force and Army Weather Information Network" (JAAWIN) that you can access (go to https://afwin.afwa.af.mil and link to "Space Weather" on the main menu). Air Force Weather is committed to providing all operators with useful products that are mission specific and easy to use. At the JAAWIN Web site, space weather is summarized in a "stoplight" presentation of "red-yellow-green" seen in Figure 1. The figure gives a quick glance look at immediate history and forecasted environmental impacts to HF communication, satellite operations, space object tracking, high altitude flight and radar interference. It also summarizes the forecasted events of solar activity--flare probabilities, geomagnetic and changed particles.

The Space Environment Discussion chart seen in Figure 2 provides festival explanations about each of the categories forecasted on the Space Environment chart.

Besides the event and impact forecast, AFWA provides a geographical forecast for space weather Not every place on the Earth will be impacted to the same degree by solar events. In JAAWIN, the forecasters provide charts showing forecasted locations for the impacted communications (HF operations and UHF SAICOM) and single-GPS navigation. Figures 3 and 4 show two examples of these charts.

So, do you need space weather as part of your situational awareness planning and briefings? You do if you need to communicate. You do if you need satellites as part of your mission's resources. You do if you are a high-flyer. That's almost all of us.

In many cases, space weather is just as important as the terrestrial weather you now receive. Your CWT is the manager of your space environment information and can tailor the products produced by AFWA to meet your unit's specific needs. Let your CWT know your specific environmental limitations and parameters. It's their mission to ensure you know where and when you may encounter them. Air Force Weather is committed to providing you and others a complete terrestrial and space weather program, a program looking at your environment from "the mud to the sun."