Space Force Weather Services Research

The Space Force Weather Services Research program, funded under Program Element (PE) 0604002SF, is a research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) initiative managed by the United States Space Force and Air Force. Its primary goal is to advance integrated technologies and models for future operationalization within Space Force Weather Services (SFWS), supporting three main lines of effort: improving readiness, strengthening alliances, and ensuring greater performance and affordability. The program delivers timely, accurate, and resilient environmental information including space and terrestrial weather to support global battlespace situational awareness for the Air Force, Army, Special Operations Forces, Space Force, combatant commands, the Intelligence Community, and other government agencies.

The program seeks to enhance the lethality, effectiveness, and survivability of Air Force and Space Force weapon systems and precision munitions by modernizing weather capabilities. This modernization allows for accurate prediction of environmental impacts on friendly and adversary operations, optimizing mission execution, planning, targeting, weaponeering, battle damage assessment, and space systems operations. SFWS development also focuses on integrating Department of Defense, other government agency, commercial, and international partner environmental data with SFWS information system equipment to enable comprehensive analysis, forecasting, and mission integration, thereby improving interoperability.

The program's objectives are organized under four capability areas: Weather Data Collection, Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination, Weather Forecasting, and Product Tailoring/Warfighter Applications (PTWA). This structure ensures an integrated, systems-oriented approach to program management decisions. The RDT&E funding primarily supports the Weather Forecasting capability, which provides global and regional advanced scientific numerical weather prediction for automated, high-resolution forecast products. Space weather modeling is a key component, assisting in characterizing and forecasting the near-Earth environment and enabling assessments of space weather anomalies and impacts.

A central line item within this program is the Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System (SWAFS), a software suite comprising numerous models and applications that ingest, process, and store space environmental data, run space environmental models, and characterize space effects. Funding supports management of SWAFS prototyping efforts, including the upgrade of the Radio Frequency Ionospheric Scintillation Application (RISA version 2), identified in an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Analysis of Alternatives. This upgrade enables the use of model algorithms with sensor packages on the Constellation Observing System to monitor Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC II), improving understanding of space environment conditions affecting satellites and communications.

Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) is tasked with upgrading the Ionospheric Data Assimilation Four Dimensional (IDA4D) model to ensure compatibility with government cloud environments within the SWAFS Space Domain Awareness Environmental Toolkit for Defense (SET4D) baseline. Additional development includes upgrades to the Space Weather High Frequency Communication Propagation Model and the Scintillation Nowcast Forecast Model Update, in coordination with AFRL. These efforts aim to identify and mitigate space environment impacts on Department of Defense and Intelligence Community communications and to develop Electromagnetic Spectrum Interference Hazard Assessment Tools (EMI-HAS).

The program also emphasizes rapid response to system resiliency and situational awareness needs in the contested space domain, leveraging commercial, government, and international partnerships where appropriate. Activities include program office support, technical analysis, experimentation, risk reduction, and prototyping to address emerging adversarial threats with speed and agility. The acquisition strategy employs Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)-based and rapid acquisition contracting methods, with AFRL providing validation for technology readiness levels (TRL) 6 and below.