At this year’s American Geophysical Union meeting, NASA scientists will provide updates on a range of Earth and space science topics, including an overview of the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, an upcoming Earth science mission that will measure the height of Earth’s fresh and saltwater. This illustration shows the SWOT satellite in orbit.
Logo for the SWORD Space Weather Center of Excellence overlaid on a photograph of Earth and its atmosphere from space.

SWORD

The Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) Center of Excellence, led by principal investigator Dr. Thomas Berger at the University of Colorado Boulder, aims to improve our ability to predict and understand the impact of space weather events on satellites in low Earth orbit and in cis lunar space.

The primary focus of SWORD is to conduct research into how the geospace environment responds to the constantly changing output of the Sun throughout its magnetic cycle, effectively connecting forecasting models of space weather in both the thermosphere and ionosphere. In addition, SWORD will conduct research into advanced data assimilation methods to improve the ability to forecast conditions during geomagnetic storms, which is crucial for protecting satellites, airlines, and other orbital space operations from any adverse effects of geomagnetic storms.

Location

University of Colorado Boulder

Program Focus

Orbital and Cis-Lunar Environment Forecasting

Principal Investigator

Dr. Thomas Berger

ProJECT Manager

Julia Putt

A bright looping burst of material flows off the Sun
Coronal Mass Ejection (CME): Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are immense clouds of magnetized particles blasted into space by the Sun at over a million miles per hour, often following after a solar flare. CMEs expand as they sweep through space, often measuring millions of miles across. When directed at Earth, a CME can produce geomagnetic disturbances that ignite bright auroras, short-circuit satellites, and power grids on Earth, or at their worst, even endanger astronauts in orbit.
ESA/NASA/SOHO

SWORD Collaborators and Partners

The SWORD Center, in addition to its researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, collaborates with other institutions such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Michigan, the University of Alaska, the University of Iowa, NASA’s Langley Research Center, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Leveraged NASA Missions

  • Hurricane Idalia as photographed by NASA's Terra satellite in August 2023. The swirling mass of the hurricane passes over some land masses and the ocean.

    COSMIC

    Read more about NOAA's Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate satellite.

  • goes-u spacecraft 3d rendering in center of image visualized from the point of view of earth orbit with the earth to the left and the sun to the right.

    GOES

    Read more about the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites.

  • In the background, the bottom half of the image is filled with a portion of Earth. The top half is the very dark blue of space. Separating the two are bands of glowing greens and red, depicting the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. In the foreground, a satellite. The satellite has two rectangular wing-like structures jutting out from the right and left of a silver rectangular box. On the top are 3 large white dishes.

    GOLD

    Explore Read more about the Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk.

  • ICON, shown in this artist’s concept, studied the frontiers of space, the dynamic zone high in our atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above.

    ICON

    Read more about the Ionospheric Connection Explorer.

  • The Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, like a silver rectangular box, with an antennae attached to the top. On the back are 3 cyclindrical objects and there is a large flat panel protruding from the left and right on the back.

    SDO

    Read more about the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

  • Artist's concept of NASA's Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission. Credit: NASA/The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL).

    TIMED

    Read more about Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics, and Dynamics.

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