SWADO

The purpose of the SWADO project is to pave the way for an operational tool and service to mitigate the current lack of prediction capability for effects of space weather in the Arctic available for the Danish Defence. When planning and executing military activities and operations, it is essential to have an understanding and continuous situational awareness of the operational environment. This includes the expected impact due to space weather and is especially the case in the Arctic, since many effects from space weather typically are more severe here than at lower latitudes. 

One important difference between effects from atmospheric weather and space weather is that the impact is typically not experienced directly (such as wave height at sea due to wind), but rather indirectly as a degradation or in extreme cases loss of performance for technological systems: communication, navigation and sensors. In some cases, the degradation of system performance is actually worse than total loss since the operator may not be aware of the degradation and its possible effects.

Research within the SWADO project will develop and test methods and algorithms with the aim to produce nowcast and forecast of space weather effects in the Arctic. A testbed has been established with 8 SWADO stations along the coast of Greenland and 1 station on the Faroe Islands. A future operational service based on the SWADO development combined with the use of GNSS and geomagnetic measurements from stations in Greenland will thus be able to provide both a current and future status for the assessment of reliability for essential technological systems.