ESPIRE (FWF)

Earth and Space Weather: An interdisciplinary Research

Run-Time: 2026-2029
Project Goals: Solar Cycle 25’s intense activity, including the May 2024 storms, exposes critical gaps in space weather forecasting. Current models often fail due to "preconditioning," where cumulative solar eruptions unpredictably alter Earth’s near-space environment. Additionally, the standard F10.7 solar proxy may be too simplistic to capture the rapid, dynamic changes of complex solar events, leading to significant model inaccuracies. This research evaluates the reliability of the F10.7 index during heightened solar activity to better understand these preconditioning effects. By addressing these predictive uncertainties, the study aims to improve atmospheric model robustness, ensuring better protection for technology during solar-active phases.
ESA/SSA Ionospheric Weather: Satellite Orbit Decay Forecast (SODA) service
UNIGRAZ team: Barbara Süsser Rechberger, Alexander Scheicher, Manuela Temmer
TU Graz team: Sandro Krauss (PI), Andreas Strasser
Project Homepage: ESPIRE