Space Weather Research and data collection
during COVID-19: the view from New Zealand

Craig J. Rodger1
1. Physics Department, University of Otago,Dunedin, New Zealand.

Prof. Craig J. Rodger
Department of Physics
University of Otago
Dunedin
NEW ZEALAND

AOSWA 2020
Invited Online Presentation
Our activities for Space Weather R&O under COVID-19

10:25 - 10:40, Monday 24 November 2020 (Japan time)Today I focus on New Zealand
Hawai'i

PNG
Samoa

Fiji
Vanuatu
New Caledonia

Not
New Zealand

Tonga

Niue

New Zealand
North Island
South Island

Antarcticaand COVID-19What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

TOTAL 1674
(confirmed cases only,also +356 probablecases)
Number current as of
23 November 2020

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New ZealandAnyone entering New Zealand must self-isolate for 14 days (14 March)https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

New Zealand boarder closed to non-NZ citizens (19 March)https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

Level 4 = only supermarkets, pharmacies, and petrol
stations open. Almost all businesses closed. Majority
of NZers stay at home. Universities and research
institutes close (online teaching).

New Zealand enters hard lockdown - LEVEL 4 (25 March)https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

Level 3 = initially, this is Level 4 with takeaway foodand coffee.
Small groups of lab based researchers can return towork (with restrictions) - online teaching continues.

New Zealand moves to mid-lockdown - LEVEL 3 (27 April)https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region withCOVID-19: New Zealand

Level 2 = Most businesses can reopen with social
distancing.
Most staff return to work (if they can sociallydistance). Some lab based teaching restarts.

New Zealand moves to softer restrictions - LEVEL 2 (11 May)

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

Level 1 = "Almost normal" situation, except forthe closed boarder. Large gatherings allowed.
People encouraged to use QR code scanning.

New Zealand moves to mostly normal situation - LEVEL 1 (8 June)

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

TOTAL 25
Unlikely to be many
“missing deaths” due tothe comparatively small
number overall, hightesting rates, etc.

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZL

What happened in your country/region with
COVID-19: New Zealand

TOTAL 1674
(confirmed cases only+356 probable)

As of23 Nov 2020 thenumber of active
cases in New
Zealand is 52.
Of these 48 were"caught" at theboarder, and 4 aredue to community
transmission.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/new‐zealand?country=~NZLIn New Zealand things seem "good", but of course not perfect.
Still a lot of worry, and a lot of fear. Larger economic impactunclear, as is the ability to maintain elimination of COVID-19 inour community.

COVID impact on Space Weather Operations
At this time New Zealand does not have any operational Space
Weather services occurring - no forecast centre or prediction
activities are led from NZ.
There are some measurements systems which are used for space
weather context, and some users in New Zealand who are space
weather aware.
Most of the Space Weather activity in New Zealand at thecurrent time is basic research, slowly working towards R2O
activities.

Eyrewell magnetometer
The Eyrewell (EYR) geomagnetic observatory is part of INTERMAGNET
and is operated by GNS Science, New Zealand. This is the only "proper"
magnetometer in New Zealand. This site has been used since 1978.

TanjaPetersen

Note EYR is located very near theHVDC cable - GNS corrects thedataset for the impact of HVDC
operation [we have checked at times oflarge changes and not been able to see anyproblems]

COVID impact on Space Weather Operations
COVID-19 impact on EYR - COVID had no impacts on thecontinuous (1 sample every second) part of the EYR datacollection. All equipment and automated processing ran well andTanja was able to perform data quality control from her homeoffice even during the NZ wide lockdown in March-April-May.
EYR k-indices that contribute to the global Kp index productwere submitted, so no impact there either.
TanjaPetersen

The weekly absolute measurements needed for the annual
production of definitive EYR data were paused during the NZ
lockdown.
The international IAGA Workshop on Geomagnetic
Observatory Instruments, Data Acquisition andProcessing, which provides ideas on how to improveobservatory data collection and processing
was cancelled.

COVID impact on Space Weather Operations
Experimental data collection at Scott
Base Antarctica continued as normal- COVID has not entered theAntarctic continent at this time.

Scott
Base

Scott Base supports magnetometer,
ionosonde, radar, LIDAR, and VLF
narrow/wide band observations.
[plus non space weather relatedscience]

COVID impact minimal for most of the winterseason, but now restrictions on people going to/from
Antarctica which is impacting summer operations.

COVID impact on Space Operations fromNew ZealandRocket Lab is a US-New Zealand private launch company. Theirmain launch site is located in New Zealand, and they provide small
satellite launches (i.e., cubesats). Ninety Five satellites have beenlaunched from LC-1 in New Zealand so far (as of 20 Nov 2020).
During our hard lock down all Rocket Lab
launches stopped. Attempts to get the company
declared an essential business was turned
down by the NZ government.
The launch of this rocket went ahead on
13 June (Level 1 restrictions) successfully
carrying payloads from NASA, Univ. NSW& the US government NRO.
LC-1

COVID impact on Space Weather R2O
Meetings in Wellington and Auckland in the aviation sector
were cancelled/postponed to an unknown future date. Thesemeetings included space weather talks, designed to better
inform the aviation community of Space Weather impacts.

New Southern Sky (NSS)
programme is a ten-year
programme to modernise theNew Zealand aviation system byimplementing the National
Airspace and Air NavigationPlan.
12-13 May 2020
AucklandApproach 20 was theAustralasian Performance-BasedNavigation (PBN) forum/conference, as part of the NSS
programme.
17-18 March 2020
Wellington

COVID impact on Space Weather R2O
In the last year or two the New
Zealand electrical grid operator has
starting discussing R2O questions how to understand the impact ofSpace Weather on their network.
And what mitigation routes to take?
Some discussions did take place byzoom and email, rather than inperson meetings. Some in person
meetings took place in August once
lockdown was lifted.

Solar Tsunamis New MBIE Endeavour Research Programme

Project nominally
started on 1 October
2020!

COVID impact on Space Weather Research
Daniel Mac Manus - validating GIC modelling in theNew Zealand power grid. Looking at extreme storms(and mitigation).

Emily Gordon - looking at Antarctic atmospheric
impacts (particularly upper stratospheric andmesospheric ozone) from radiation belt precipitation.

Sam Belcher - working with ground based VLF
observations from Arctic location to test groundbased solar flare nowcasting and magnitude
estimations.

Craig Rodger gives a talk on Space
Weather at "The Sunroom", a public art
installation [20 June 2017].

Thank you for listening
Can we do questions? Is there time?