Monitoring Space Weather at GSSAC

The sun emits electromagnetic waves as well as particles, i.e. electrons and protons, and the term space weather covers all phenomena and issues related to these radiations. Space weather in general affects technical systems and therefore it has to be monitored. As well as normal weather does, space weather shows regular, but sometimes irregular behaviour, and in particular the latter can lead to significant threats to technical systems. The principal mission of the German Space Situational Awareness Center (GSSAC) is to provide a recognized space picture, which comprises the detection, prediction and assessment of hazards coming from space for the safety of systems and operations. This definitely includes space weather, since it has an enormous impact on satellites, satellite’s subsystem functionality, communication and GPS. In this regard the ionosphere has a key role. The ionosphere represents the state and the behaviour of space weather in a suitable way. Surveying the ionosphere, modelling and forecasting are important subjects at GSSAC. Hence, this presentation deals with the GSSAC activities on space weather monitoring, where first of all observation methods and modelling approaches are considered.