Agora – Project report

The Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre

¹ KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
² Royal Observatory of Belgium, 1180 Ukkel, Belgium
³ Von Karman Institute, 1640 Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium
⁴ Space Applications Systems, 1932 Zaventem, Belgium
⁵ DH Consultancy, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
⁶ Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, 1180 Ukkel, Belgium
⁷ British Antarctic Survey, CB3 0ET Cambridge, United Kingdom
⁸ European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
⁹ Institute of Physics, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, 20-400 Lublin, Poland
¹⁰ European Space Operations Centre, European Space Agency, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany

^* Corresponding author: Stefaan.Poedts@kuleuven.be

Received: 29 October 2019
Accepted: 4 March 2020

Abstract

Aims. Our goal is to develop and provide an open end-to-end (Sun to Earth) space weather modeling system, enabling to combine (“couple”) various space weather models in an integrated tool, with the models located either locally or geographically distributed, so as to better understand the challenges in creating such an integrated environment. Methods. The physics-based models are installed on different compute clusters and can be run interactively and remotely and that can be coupled over the internet, using open source “high-level architecture” software, to make complex modeling chains involving models from the Sun to the Earth. Visualization tools have been integrated as “models” that can be coupled to any other integrated model with compatible output. Results. The first operational version of the VSWMC is accessible via the SWE Portal and demonstrates its end-to-end simulation capability. Users interact via the front-end GUI and can interactively run complex coupled simulation models and view and retrieve the output, including standard visualizations, via the GUI. Hence, the VSWMC provides the capability to validate and compare model outputs.