THE CONVERGENCE HUB FOR THE EXPLORATION OF SPACE SCIENCE
AN OPEN KNOWLEDGE NETWORK AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FRAMEWORK FOR SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION
An Open Knowledge Network and AI framework for the burgeoning field of space weather. As society grows increasingly dependent on the space environment its flourishing depends on an understanding of and preparation for space weather.
CHESS (The Convergence Hub for the Exploration of Space Science) is a new convergent approach to space weather research, delivering:
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The tools to address data challenges (i.e., data wrangling) and make predictions (e.g., machine learning)
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The usable products (i.e., an Open Knowledge Network) that will lead to a flourishing space physics community built at the intersection of traditional approaches and state‐of‐the‐art data‐driven sciences and technologies.
The first phase of CHESS is focused on the space weather effects on the electric power grid. The electric power grid connects our homes, schools, businesses and cities and underlies the very fabric of our society yet it is extremely vulnerable to disruptions to our space environment, or space weather. CHESS is the convergent community and innovative approach that we need to ensure that we have a modern, flexible and resilient grid to serve 21st-century needs.
WHY CHESS?
In March 1989, a tripped circuit in the Hydro-Québec power grid left 6 million people without electricity. A week earlier, an unusually harsh snowstorm had strained the region; the day before, a solar flare and accompanying release of plasma and magnetic field sent a mountain of energy propelling toward Earth at a million miles an hour.
The complex interactions of these interconnected systems – environmental and terrestrial science, space weather and solar activity – pushed the electric power grid to a tipping point that could not be understood within any single one of those systems.
The data to better forecast and therefore protect against space weather may already exist in our Space Weather Observational System.
The challenge is that we rely on information from satellites launched by countless countries, in different orbits, looking at different, but connected, phenomena – all because we don’t even yet know what information we need to predict space weather.
AND that’s just information from satellites. There’s even more information being collected on the ground.
Power utility companies have been recording the effects of space weather for years, but it is spread out across dozens of utility companies, compiled in different forms, and mostly not accessible. The convergence challenge is that utility companies recording these data don’t really know what to do with it, while scientists who do know what to do with it don’t have access.
The harnessing the data revolution challenge of space weather is to utilize all of this information, responding to the big data challenge with innovative data science solutions. We are here to turn these challenges into opportunities.
OUR TEAM AND PARTNERS
