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Space-weather events occur regularly and have measurable effects on critical infrastructure systems and technologies. The National Space Weather Strategy (Strategy) and National Space Weather Action Plan (Action Plan) establish goals and actions to enhance the understanding of risk from, and national preparedness for, extreme space-weather events. Many of the goals and activities outlined in the Strategy and Action Plan can be scaled to address space-weather events that are smaller in magnitude. Such events occur more frequently than extreme events and can have significant effects.

Space weather is a global issue. Unlike terrestrial weather events (e.g., a hurricane), space weather has the potential to simultaneously affect the whole of North America or reach even wider geographic regions of the planet. Even though the United States is a global leader in observing and forecasting space-weather events, these capabilities depend on international cooperation and coordination.

This Strategy outlines objectives for enhancing the Nation’s space-weather readiness in three key areas: national preparedness, forecasting, and understanding. Federal departments and agencies have taken significant steps in these key areas. The challenges posed by global vulnerability to space-weather events require continuing research and development to improve observation and forecasting capabilities, which are linked directly to preparedness. The goals outlined in this Strategy will leverage these efforts and existing policies, while promoting enhanced coordination and cooperation across the public and private sectors in the United States and abroad.

Implementation of the National Space Weather Strategy

The Action Plan, released concurrently with this Strategy, details the Federal activities that will be undertaken to implement the Strategy and achieve the six high-level goals, and includes deliverables and timelines. This Strategy acknowledges the challenges associated with planning and preparing for extreme events that do not currently have well-defined recurrence rates; identified activities in the Action Plan should therefore be prioritized accordingly. The Executive Office of the President will coordinate the execution of the Action Plan and will reevaluate and update the Strategy and Action Plan within 3 years of the date of publication, or as needed.

Full implementation of this Strategy will require the action of a nationwide network of governments, agencies, emergency managers, academia, the media, the insurance industry, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector. Strong public-private collaborations must be established between the Federal Government, industry, and academia to enhance observing networks, conduct research, develop prediction models, and supply the services necessary to protect life and property and to promote economic prosperity. These partnerships will form the backbone of a space-weather-ready Nation.

Enhancing National Preparedness and Critical Infrastructure Resilience

This Strategy ensures that space weather is fully integrated into the frameworks of two Presidential Policy Directives (PPDs): PPD-8, “National Preparedness” (March 30, 2011); and PPD-21, “Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience” (February 12, 2013).

PPD-8 calls for an integrated, nationwide, capabilities-based approach to preparedness for all hazards. It also calls for the creation of a series of National Planning Frameworks. Accordingly, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) coordinated the development of the Strategic National Risk Assessment (SNRA). The SNRA identified space weather as one of nine natural hazards with the potential to significantly affect homeland security.

PPD-21 identifies three strategic imperatives to drive the Federal approach to strengthening critical infrastructure security and resilience at the core of this Strategy. The Directive identifies energy and communications systems as vital due to the enabling functions they provide across all critical infrastructure sectors. The Directive also instructs the Federal Government to engage with industry and international partners to strengthen the security and resilience of domestic and international critical infrastructures on which the Nation depends.

Strategic Goals

This Strategy defines six strategic goals to prepare the Nation for near- and long-term space-weather impacts. The goals aim to improve the Nation’s preparedness for, forecasting of, and understanding of space-weather events, encompassing efforts related both to the phenomena that cause space weather and the effects of these phenomena.

The six high-level goals for Federal research, development, deployment, operations, coordination, and engagement are:

1. Establish Benchmarks for Space-Weather Events

2. Enhance Response and Recovery Capabilities

3. Improve Protection and Mitigation Efforts

4. Improve Assessment, Modeling, and Prediction of Impacts on Critical Infrastructure

5. Improve Space-Weather Services through Advancing Understanding and Forecasting

6. Increase International Cooperation

1. Establish Benchmarks for Space-Weather Events

Benchmarks are a set of characteristics and conditions against which a space-weather event can be measured. They provide a point of reference from which to improve the understanding of space-weather effects, develop more effective mitigation procedures, enhance response and recovery planning, and understand risk.

Benchmarks should provide clear and consistent descriptions of the relevant physical parameters of space-weather phenomena based on current scientific understanding and the historical record. For example, benchmarks may serve as input to vulnerability assessments to help establish decision points and thresholds for action and to inform practices (e.g., device development, operational planning, and mitigation efforts). These benchmarks will not seek to categorize or classify the degree of impact from a space-weather event on a technology or infrastructure system.

To be effective, the benchmarks must be developed in a timely manner using transparent methodology with a clear statement of assumptions and uncertainties and publicly available data (where possible). Because of relatively limited data and gaps in understanding space-weather phenomena, benchmarks should be reevaluated as significant new data and research become available. The following objectives should be pursued in the development of these benchmarks:

(a) Define scope, purpose, and approach for developing benchmarks: The benchmarks will use multiple physical parameters to describe a space-weather event. The parameters should include characteristics of an event and its interactions with Earth and near-Earth environments (e.g., geomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances).

(b) Create multiple benchmarks to address different circumstances: The benchmarks should cover:

(c) Different types of space-weather events (e.g., ionospheric disturbances induced by solar flares, and geomagnetic disturbances induced by CMEs);

(d) Multiple physical parameters that will ensure the functionality of the benchmarks (e.g., magnitude and duration); and

(e) A range of event magnitudes and associated recurrence intervals (e.g., multiple event scenarios may inform different vulnerability thresholds, and an understanding of the worst-case scenario may be instructive).

2. Enhanced Response and Recovery Capabilities

Extreme space-weather events are potentially high-impact events that will require a coordinated national response and recovery effort. Leveraging the National Planning Frameworks, the Nation will develop comprehensive guidance to support existing response and recovery capabilities to manage extreme events with government (Federal, State, and local), industry, and other partners. Improved vulnerability assessments and systems modeling will enhance planning for the effects of extreme events on critical infrastructure systems and the Whole Community, as well as inform estimates of duration and costs of response and recovery measures. Likewise, improved forecasting capabilities will enable the development of time-sensitive procedures before significant impacts can occur. Enhancing the Nation’s response and recovery capabilities will require continued investments, unique solutions, and strong public-private partnerships. The following objectives should be pursued to enhance response and recovery capabilities:

(a) Complete an all-hazards power outage response and recovery plan: The primary risk from an extreme space-weather event is the potential for the long-term loss of electric power and the cascading effects that it would have on other critical infrastructure sectors. Other high-impact events are also capable of causing long-term regional or national power outages. It is essential to have a comprehensive and executable plan (with key decision points) to address regional or national power outages. The plan must include the Whole Community and prioritize core capabilities.

(b) Support government and private-sector planning for and management of extreme space-weather events: The incorporation of space-weather event information into all-hazards planning is limited for Federal, State, and local governments. Credible information and guidance on how to obtain that knowledge and incorporate it into government all-hazards planning should be developed and disseminated.

(c) Provide guidance on contingency planning for the effects of extreme space weather for essential government and industry services: Preservation of government services, personnel movement, and maintenance of infrastructure systems are essential before, during, and after an extreme space-weather event. Government, the private sector, and critical infrastructure entities need guidance on how to respond in a manner that increases the likelihood of maintaining essential operational elements for a prolonged period of time.

(d) Ensure the capability and interoperability of communications systems during extreme space-weather events: Effective communications systems are essential to gaining and maintaining situational awareness and ensuring unity of effort in response and recovery operations. The effects of space weather on communications systems occur at different timescales and at varying degrees within a single event, depending on the system and the characteristics and duration of the event. Government and private-sector stakeholders need guidance that allows them to maintain communications capabilities (including interoperability) during an extreme space-weather event.

(e) Encourage owners and operators of infrastructure and technology assets to coordinate development of realistic power-restoration priorities and expectations: Electrical power providers should develop protocols for restoring electrical power before disruptions, in coordination with State and local governments. Critical-asset owners and operators must work with their providers to ensure that their power needs are understood. The owners and operators should consider plans and capabilities for temporary power in the event of an electrical power disruption caused by an extreme space-weather event.

(f) Develop and conduct exercises to improve and test government and industry-related space-weather response and recovery plans: Evaluating the effectiveness of plans includes developing and executing a combination of training events and exercises to determine whether the goals, objectives, decisions, actions, and timing outlined in the plans support successful response and recovery. Exercising plans and capturing lessons learned enables ongoing improvement in event response and recovery capabilities.

3. Improve Protection and Mitigation Efforts

Growing interdependencies of critical infrastructure systems have increased potential vulnerabilities to space-weather events. Protection and mitigation efforts to eliminate or reduce space-weather vulnerabilities are essential components of national preparedness. Protection focuses on capabilities and actions to eliminate vulnerabilities to space weather, and mitigation focuses on long-term vulnerability reduction and enhancing resilience to disasters.13 Together, these preparedness missions frame a national effort to reduce vulnerabilities and manage risks associated with space-weather events. Implementing these preparedness missions requires joint action from both public and private stakeholders, due to the shared expertise and responsibilities embedded in the Nation’s infrastructure systems. The following objectives should be pursued to improve protection and mitigation efforts with respect to space-weather events:

(a) Encourage development of hazard-mitigation plans that reduce vulnerabilities to, manage risks from, and assist with response to the effects of space weather: In support of Whole Community planning for resilience, information about space-weather hazards should be integrated, as appropriate, into existing mechanisms for information sharing, including Information Sharing Analysis Organizations, and into national preparedness mechanisms that promote strategic alignment between public and private sectors.

(b) Work with industry to achieve long-term reduction of vulnerability to space-weather events by implementing measures at locations most susceptible to space weather: Adopting standards, business practices, and operational procedures that improve protection and resilience is essential to addressing system vulnerabilities to space weather. The benchmark space-weather events described in the first strategic goal (Establish Benchmarks for Space-Weather Events) should be used to support the adoption of design standards for enhanced resilience; evaluate strategies for, priorities for, and feasibility of protecting critical assets; and foster mechanisms for sharing best practices that promote mitigation and protection of systems affected by space weather.

(c) Strengthen public-private collaborations that support action to reduce vulnerability to space weather: Private industries are essential to the Nation’s resilience. They are the owners and operators of the majority of the Nation’s critical infrastructure, and they play a vital role in research and development to enhance understanding and improve mitigation. Space-weather events do not respect national, jurisdictional, or corporate boundaries. Incorporating resilience measures into U.S. infrastructure systems requires public-private collaboration, support of existing coordinating mechanisms for information sharing and access, and identification of incentives and disincentives for investing in resilience measures.