Space Weather Prediction Testbed 2026
Bulk Electric System Exercise

Agenda

Day 1 (Tuesday, August 25th)

Arrive 

08:00 - 08:30 Arrive NOAA David Skaggs Research Center

Day 1: Session 1 - Introductions

08:30 - 08:40 Welcome and Introductions (Clinton Wallace, NOAA SWPC)

08:40 - 08:45 Logistics (Denise Miller, NOAA SWPC)

08:45 - 08:55 Round the Room Introductions (Hazel Bain, NOAA SWPC)

Scene Setting 

09:00 - 09:30 NOAA SWPC Forecast Office (Rob Steenburgh, NOAA SWPC)

09:35 - 09:45 FERC (Joe McClelland, FERC)

09:45 - 10:00 NERC (Bill Graham/Mark Olson, NERC)

10:00 - 10:20 Break (20 mins)

Day 1: Session 2 - Product Previews  

10:20 - 10:30 Exercise Objectives (Hazel Bain, NOAA SWPC)

10:30 - 10:40 Space Weather Product Ladder Transformation (Bri Muhlestein, NOAA SWPC)

10:40 - 10:50 NOAA/SWPC Geoelectric Field Project (Jordan Guerra, CIRES/SWPC)

11:50 - 11:00 Space Weather Scales Revision (Bill Murtagh, Lynker/SWPC)

11:00 - 11:30 Split Into Working Groups & Introductions

11:30 - 12:00 Familiarization with SWPC Geoelectric Field Products

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch (60 mins)

Day 1: Session 3 - Geoelectric Field Products

13:00 - 13:05 Afternoon Objectives (Hazel Bain, NOAA/SWPC)

13:05 - 13:20 March 1989 Space Weather Summary (David Boteler, NRCan)

Exercise Begins - March 1989 Geomagnetic Storm 

13:20 - 14:35 March 1989 Storm - Simulation Start 

Working Group Discussions

• Evaluation of Geoelectric Field Products

14:35 - 14:50 GIC Modeling (Tawsif Ahmad, PNNL)

14:50 - 15:15 Break (25 mins)

Day 1: Session 4 - Integration With Industry Tools and Validation Studies 

15:15 - 15:30 PowerWorld Modeling (Scott Dahman, PowerWorld)

15:30 - 16:05 March 1989 Storm - Simulation Resumes 

Working Group Discussions

• Integration of Space Weather Information Into BES Industry Tools

16:05 - 16:20

Full Group Discussion

• Validation Studies (Jordan Guerra, CIRES/SWPC)

Wrap Up

16:20 - 17:00 Wrap Up

18:00 - 20:00 Social at Pattern Break Brewing

Day 2 (Wednesday, August 19th and 26th)

Day 2: Session 1 - Gannon Storm, Solar Eruption and Early Notification 

08:00 - 08:30 Arrive NOAA David Skaggs Research Center

08:30 - 08:35 Day 2 Exercise Objectives (Hazel Bain)

Exercise Begins -  - Gannon Geomagnetic Storm, May 2024

08:35 - 08:50 Space Weather Activity Briefing  (Rob Steenburgh, NOAA/SWPC)

08:50 - 10:10 Gannon Storm - Simulation Start

Working Group Discussions

• Discussion on Forecaster Analysis Process
• Newly Proposed Space Weather Statement 
• CME Arrival Time Ensembles
• Updated Space Weather Statement

10:10 - 10:30 Working Group Report Outs and Discussion

10:30 - 11:00 Break (30 mins)

Day 2: Session 2 - Proposed Revisions to the Geomagnetic Storm Watch

11:00 - 11:40 Gannon Storm - Simulation Resumes

Working Group Discussions

• Newly Proposed Space Weather Watch
• Proposed Partner Email Briefing

11:40 - 12:00 Working Group Report Outs and Discussion

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch/Group Picture (60 mins)

Day 2: Session 3 - Partner Email Briefing and Proposed Revisions to the Geomagnetic Storm Warning and Alert Products

13:00 - 13:30 Working Group Discussions

• Proposed Partner Email Briefing

13:30 - 14:25 Gannon Storm - Simulation Resumes

Working Group Discussions

• Newly Proposed Space Weather Warning
• Alerts vs Updated Warnings

14:25 - 14:45 Working Group Report Outs and Discussion

14:45 - 15:15 Break (30 mins)

Day 2: Session 4 - Storm Termination Product & Communicating Storm Severity

15:15 - 15:55 Gannon Storm - Simulation Resumes

Working Group Discussions

• Storm Termination Products

15:55 - 16:40 Communication of Storm Severity

Wrap Up

16:40 - 17:00 Wrap Up

Day 3 (Thursday, August 20th and 27th)

Day 3: Session 1 - Extreme Event Discussion

08:00 - 08:30 Arrive NOAA David Skaggs Research Center

08:30 - 09:45 Extreme Event Discussion

• DHS Benchmarking Activities (Patrick Dandendault, APL)
• 1-in-100 Year Time Synthetic Time Series for Reliability Assessments (Steve Morley, LANL)

09:45 - 10:00 Break (15 mins)

Day 3: Session 2 - Exercise Debrief & Takeaways

10:00 - 11:00 Debrief Exercise Events / Additional Topics

11:00 - 11:20 Next Steps (Hazel Bain, NOAA/SWPC)

11:20 - 11:35 Summary of Product Improvement Needs (Clinton Wallace, NOAA/SWPC)

11:35 - 11:50 Summary of Scientific Needs (Shawn Britton/Alex Fletcher, NASA) 

11:50 - 12:00 Wrap Up (Hazel Bain, NOAA/SWPC)

Image

Image

Description:

Purpose:

Input Observations:

ASCII and geoJSON formats:

Download the netCDF file(s) to be converted into text files and process them according to the instructions in the link.

Notes:

• The number of input geomagnetic stations included in the simulations can vary from storm to storm depending on availability or data issues such as large gaps.
• Further simulations from other major storm periods will be added in future, based on input data availability and quality.

For details about the NOAA-USGS Geoelectric Model visit here.

For any comment, information, or to report any issues with the geoelectric data please email to jordan.guerra@noaa.gov. For any issues with this website please contact alicia.williams@noaa.gov.

Conditions of Use and Acknowledgements:

If any of this output is used for scientific publications, please include the following language (or similar) in the data availability statement: “Geoelectric fields values used in this work were calculated by the NOAA-USGS Geoelectric Field Model, which uses input data from USGS, NRCan, and magneto-telluric transfer functions from the EarthScope project. Data can be found here." For other purposes please include the following statement “Geoelectric data source: The NOAA-USGS Geoelectric Model” (or similar acknowledgment) and link to this page.

Welcome to the Space Weather Prediction Testbed (SWPT)

The Space Weather Prediction Testbed is a Research-to-Operations-to-Research (R2O2R) partnership led by the Space Weather Prediction Center. The Testbed enables customers, researchers, and forecasters to engage collaboratively on improvements to observations, models, and forecast products. Numerous partners (including NASA, NSF, and the Department of Defense) support SWPC's efforts to integrate these improvements into NOAA operations, ensuring the Nation benefits from these significant and coordinated investments in space weather research. This website serves as the online portal to the SWPT facility soon to be built in Boulder, Colorado.

Disclaimer: Products contained on this site are experimental and should not be relied on for operations.