The Air Force launches the first Space Weather bulletin

(To air Force)
13/03/18

Since March 12, 2018, the Operations Center for Meteorology (COMet) has begun the development and dissemination of a daily "Space Weather Bulletin (SWx)", produced on the basis of information provided by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The Bulletin and the associated graphic product are available to military users on the specialist portal "Prometeo 2", the same where the meteorological information provided by the Air Force is made available. It is already expected that next year the bulletin update frequency will be increased to up to four issues per day.

The SWx concerns the state of interplanetary space, influenced by solar activity. The electromagnetic fields and the solar wind constantly interact with the magnetic field and the terrestrial ionosphere, generating spectacular polar aurorae, but sometimes disturbing, more or less intensely depending on latitudes, communications, electronic equipment and satellite instruments, or significantly deteriorating the accuracy of GPS navigation systems.

Precisely to mitigate the impact of these "spatial" phenomena on the conduct of all military operations, and in particular on air navigation and satellite communications, Aeronautics has long started a process to train its personnel, adapt its infrastructures and start up a structured day and night operational production for 365 days a year.

To find out more about this topic, the article entitled "Space Meteorology" is available on the website www.meteoam.it of the meteorological service.