[P-EM09] Space Weather and Space Climate

[PEM09-04] Solar Radiation Storm Advisories for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): User Engagement and Lessons Learned

★Invited Papers

*Hazel M Bain^1,2, Kyle Copeland³, Robert Steenburgh², William Murtagh², Terry Onsager² (1.CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder, 2.NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, 3.U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Civil Aerospace Medical Institute)

Keywords:Space Weather, Aviation, Radiation, Forecasting

This presentation will focus on the effects of space weather on the aviation industry, in particular the impact of large solar energetic particle (SEP) events and on the radiation environment experienced by flight crew and passengers.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA/SWPC) issues radiation advisories for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), alerting users to enhancements in the radiation dose rates at aviation flight levels. To model the radiation environment NOAA/SWPC uses the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) CARI-7 aviation dose rate model.

In recent customer engagements through e.g., the recent NOAA/SWPC testbed experiment we have used CARI-7 to retrospectively model historical SEP events to communicate with users the differences between SWPCs traditional suite of proton Warning forecasts and the new ICAO advisories; illustrate how these new regional products address user requests for services tailored to the aviation industry; and gather feedback from users on how the ICAO radiation advisories could be improved to better serve their needs. In this presentation I will share some of the feedback received from the testbed experiment and the work we are carrying out at NOAA/SWPC to address those user needs.