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From: "Candice L Curtiss" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Candice L Curtiss" <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>;
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Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 6:04 PM
Subject: SEC's DIRE SITUATION
> Dear Friend,
>
> The following describes Space Environment Center's unfortunate financial
> situation. For the coming fiscal year, the House Committee-recommended
> funding creates a huge shortfall, and the Senate Committee's
> recommendation implies no support for space weather service at all this
> year. Possibly a new service would be established elsewhere in the
> government, but that is uncertain at this point.
>
> We thought you would like to know.
> Ernest Hildner and the staff of SEC
>
> U.S. SPACE WEATHER SERVICE IN DEEP TROUBLE
> SUMMARY
> For Fiscal Year 2004, starting October 1, 2003, the House Appropriations
> Bill for Commerce, Justice, and State continues Space Environment
> Center's funding at $5.2 M (a reduction of 40 % below the FY02 level).
> Worse, the FY04 Senate Appropriations Bill zeroes Space Environment
> Center and all space weather in NOAA, so services, data and
> observations, and archiving would all disappear if the final
> appropriation is at the Senate level. At the House funding level,
> starting October 1 SEC will rapidly lose about half its staff,
> negatively affecting its ability to serve the Nation with operational
> products, data collection, and R&D. Unless the appropriation level for
> Space Environment Center is restored to the level of the President's
> FY04 Budget Request, $8.3 million, the Nation's civilian space weather
> service is in trouble. At the President's requested funding level,
> Space Environment Center can almost return to FY02 level of services,
> data, and R&D.
> BACKGROUND
> NOAA's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colorado, provides a range
> of services to the Nation related to space weather phenomena. Among
> other activities, the Center is the unique provider of real-time
> monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events, it conducts
> research in solar-terrestrial physics, and it develops techniques for
> forecasting solar and geophysical disturbances. That is, Space
> Environment Center is the Nation's space weather service, monitoring and
> predicting conditions in space, much as the National Weather Service
> does for meteorological weather.
> SEC jointly operates the Space Weather Operations Center with the U.S.
> Air Force and serves as the national and world warning center for
> disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in the space
> environment. It is the government's official source for alerts and
> warnings of disturbances. Customers include DoD, NASA, FAA, airlines,
> operators of electric power grids, communicators, satellite operators,
> the National Space Weather Program, and commercial providers of
> value-added space weather services. Partnering with researchers funded
> by NSF, NASA, and the DoD, Space Environment Center is the place where
> much of the nation's $100s of millions annual investment in the National
> Space Weather Program and in space physics research is applied for the
> benefit of commerce, defense, NASA spaceflight, and individual
> taxpayers.
> SEC's appropriation lines can be found in the Department of Commerce,
> National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of
> Oceanic and Atmospheric Research portion of the Budget.
>
> In the omnibus appropriations Bill for FY 2003, the SEC received a
> severe cut to its budget of about 40%, with no explanation for the
> reduction. One-time funding additions have kept SEC afloat in FY2003.
> The President's Budget request is $8.3 million for SEC in FY2004 (an
> amount consistent with its past budgetary levels), but the House
> Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Committee provides only $5.2
> million, or roughly 40% less than the amount necessary to maintain SEC
> at its current operational effectiveness. Again for FY04, no
> explanatory text was included in the Committee Report to explain this
> reduction, and it far exceeds the 18 % reduction below request meted out
> to NOAA Research overall and the 1% reduction to National Weather
> Service's request. The Bill has not yet been acted upon by the full
> House. The Senate Appropriations Committee explains its termination of
> space weather in NOAA in the Report accompanying its
> Commerce-Justice-State Bill as follows. (The full text of the Senate
> Report may be found at
> http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=sr144&dbname=cp108&)
> Solar observation. - The "Atmospheric" in NOAA does not extend to the
> astral. Absolutely no funds are provided for solar observation. Such
> activities are rightly the bailiwick of the National Aeronautics and
> Space Administration and the Air Force.
>
> Needless to say, there is no evidence to suggest that NASA and the Air
> Force agree that one or the other, or both, should operate the Nation's
> civilian space weather service.
>
> CONCLUSION
> Unless SEC's appropriation level is increased in Conference, the best
> outlook is that Space Environment Center shrinks to less than half its
> capability (House mark), and the worst is that space weather will
> disappear from NOAA (Senate mark). In this case, the Nation's space
> weather service will have to be reconstituted in some other agency, at
> greater cost and lesser capability, to meet the Nation's needs.
>
>
> **************************************************
> Ernest Hildner
> Director, Space Environment Center Tel: 303-497-3311
> Manager, NOAA Space Weather Program Fax: 303 497-3645
> 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305 www.sec.noaa.gov
> **************************************************
>
>
>
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