Space Weather R&O activity inJapan under COVID-19
Mamoru Ishii
Space Environment Laboratory
National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology (NICT), Japan
1

The COVID-19 situation in Japan©️Yahoo Japan

Patient number in Japan⚫ Feb 5, the first
positive casewas detected on
the cruise ship

⚫ Mar 24, Tokyo
Olympic Games
was postponed⚫ Apr 7 – May 26“State ofemergency”
was issued

Japan overcame the “1st wave” by prompt measures

The COVID-19 situation in Japan©️Yahoo Japan

Patient number in Japan⚫ Unemploymentrate jumped up(mainly travel andrestaurant industry)⚫ Jun 19, all travelrestrictions wascancelled, and⚫ Jul 22, “go totravel” campaign
was started as agovernmental
economic
measure⚫ Now Japan faces
the “2nd“ andcoming “3 rd” wave

Japan restarted economic activity and faced the “2 ndwave”. And now the patient number rises again.
Japan should brace the coming “3 rd wave”.

Space Weather forecast briefing under COVID-19• After the state of emergency on
April 7, 2020, all operations in NICT
moved to tele-work after April 8.
• We prepared infrastructure forspace weather forecast briefing
with web conference because of24/7 monitoring.
• We had not fixed schemes so we
had some troubles on thebeginning. But space weather
forecast information service
continuously.
• Web conference has been used forforecasters’ hand over for avoiding
spread of COVID-19.
• SWx user committee (Oct.20) andusers’ forum（Nov.11) were heldwoth ZOOM and the participants
increased from the past.
4

ICAO Space Weather Services◆ ICAO, International Civil Aviation Organization started
to provide space weather services since Nov. 2019with three global centers (US, European consortium
named PECASUS and ACFJ which is a consortium ofAustralia, Canada, France and Japan) with rotating
their responsibility every two weeks.
◆ These global centers use their own observational
data and models for monitoring and forecasting theionosphere, which can cause inconsistency of official
space weather forecast.
◆ NICT hosts data archive for collecting and sharing
ICAO space weather center data for harmonizing andimproving space weather forecast services.
◆ The system will establish on Dec. 2020 and theservice will begin on Jan. 2021.

GNSS

SAT CommAviation
HF CommRadiation

5The region SAT com disabledFinland
UKAustria
BelgiumCyprus
GermanyItaly
NetherlandPolandUSPECASUSACFJAustlaria
CanadaFranceJapanThe three centers rotate their duty every two weeks.
The regular service started on November 7, 2019.
5

VHF radar was installed in Chumphon
city, Thailand on Jan. 2020

6

PSTEP

Project for Solar-Terrestrial
Environment Prediction

PSTEP is a nation-wide project in Japan forspace weather & space climate study.
• 20 Institutes & 100 Researchers
Tohoku U• Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on
Innovative Areas from MEXT/Japan(2015-2019)
JMA
NIPR
JAEA
JMAKyoto U
Hiroshima U
Kyushu U

RIHNOsaka P U
Hyogo P U

ISEE,Nagoya U

2020/12/2

Chiba UJAMSTECNICTU Tokyo
NAOJ
ISAS/JAXA RIKEN
Musashino A U
ENRI
Seikei UU EC

Outputs of PSTEP
Purpose: One of the purposes of PSTEP is to have close and both-way communications between users of space
weather information and scientists, which makes us to provide useful applications for users, and to set clear scientificgoals for scientists.
Plans：•With gap analysis between needs and seeds of space weather information service, we discuss and set goals ofservices, and develop the applications.
•We find critical parameters for improving space weather forecast precision with discussing integration of models
for prediction.
•We set continuous communication between users and scientists for reflecting the opinions from both sides.

Developed Applications
••

•
•

•
•
•

An interactive HF propagation simulator wasdeveloped and will published on the Web
Several ionospheric models and 3D real time
ionospheric electron density deduced fromobservation are available for use
Magnetospheric condition on the surface ofgeostationary orbit is estimated.
We developed a system monitoring charged
condition in the prototype satellite at any positionon the surface of geostationary orbit.

Surface ofgeostationary ortit

Prototypesatellite

Radiation dose at aviation altitude is estimated fromhigh energy particle observation and show global map.
Altitude profile is also available along routes fromJapan
Used in ICAO global space weather services
8Radio Propagation Simulator:HF-START
Open to public
Japanese GNSS Tomography

Basic domestic option

Input from user
Tx

Rx

Date

TimeFrequency

Search for interpolated tomography data
(Near real-time capability)

Output for user
MUF-LUF map for specified propagation linkSpecified frequency is usable or should be avoided.
Tomography: https://www.enri.go.jp/cnspub/tomo3/plotting.html

9WASAVIES（WArning System for AVIation Exposure toSolar energetic particle
https://wasavies.nict.go.jp/about.html

Temporal variation of dose ratemeasured by neutron monitor

Global map of dose rate on the aviation altitude

Web site was opened on Nov. 7, 2019
Dose rate along aviation route（Narita-New York）• WASAVIES is a dose rate estimation system at any point with the real time data ofGOES Proton flux and neutron monitor.
• Update once in a day in usual case and once in five minute with GLE occurs.
• The temporal variation of dose rate can be monitored since the event occur GLE.

Space Weather benchmark in Japanese society
Space weather impact matrix
Occurrence and Impact

Field

Power gridSatellite operation

Communication/Broadc
ast

Satellite Positioning

Aviation

Human in space
Human on the ground

HazardousSpace Weather Phenomena

Oftensereval
times in ayear

1/1 year

1/10 year

1/100 year

1/1000 year

ShutdownofGICelectricity
Surface charge
High energetic particles
Negative ionospheric storm
Radio black out
HF utilityPolar Cap Absorption
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles
VHF utility
Sporadic E layer
Declineof Positive ionospheric storm
positioning
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles
precision
Ionospheric scintillation
Radio black out
Declineof Polar Cap Absorption
communication
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles
Sporadic E layer
Declineof Positive ionospheric storm
positioning
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles
precision
Ionospheric scintillation
Human exposure Solar Energetic Particles
Human exposure Solar Energetic Particles
Human exposure Solar Energetic Particles

scaleImacts are negligible

Caution and need to prepare backup system

Dificult to operate11Conclusions

12⚫ NICT is only organization to provide space weather forecast information
operationally in Japan.
⚫ We have been struggling to keep and open the observed and analyzed
data in COVID-19 situation.
⚫ Followings are open database managed by NICT
⚫ Ionosphere observation data recorded on micro-films since IGY (1957) in Japanand overseas http://wdc.nict.go.jp/IONO/index_E.html⚫ Ionospheric hand-drawn data (1936-1954)
http://wdc.nict.go.jp/IONO/wdc/index.html⚫ Solar optical and radio observation data observed at Hiraiso (1996-2016) andYamagawa (2016-present) http://solarobs.nict.go.jp/⚫ Japan contributes to ICAO as a part of space weather global centers. The
service started on Nov. 7, 2019.
⚫ NICT has national (e.g., PSTEP) and international (e.g., AOSWA)
collaboration for improving space weather observation and forecast
framework.
Acknowledgements: A part of these research results was obtained within ”Promotion of observation andanalysis of radio wave propagation”, commissioned research of the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications, Japan. PSTEP is supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas(2015-2019), MEXT, Japan12