Publisher's Synopsis
In the six years since the inception of the National Space Weather Program (NSWP), space weather has virtually become a household word. Space weather refers to conditions on the Sun and in the solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, andthermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life or health. The growing awareness within the general public is largely the result of a conscious effort by all space weather stakeholders to educate the nation on the effects of solar storms and their potential impacts on the modern technology so important to daily life. In addition toincreased awareness, solid advances have been made in our knowledge of the space weather system and in our ability to forecast potentially disruptive space weather events.The NSWP Strategic Plan, released in 1995, put forth a strategy for achieving space weather goals. The program elements outlined in this strategy are shown in the figure below. The Strategic Plan was followed in 1997 by the NSWP Implementation Plan, which identified specific objectives and recommended activities necessary for improving space weather predictive capabilities. In the last six years, significant progress has been made in all programmatic areas.
