Toward the Establishment of a National Center for Space Weather Services: Vision, Mission and Organization

This article discusses the need for research, monitoring and forecasting services related to space weather events and the establishment of a national center to achieve these goals. It starts with an introduction to the growing dependence of human civilization on advanced technologies, including space technology, and with an overview of the big investments and costs incurred in building critical infrastructures on Earth and in space. Then, this paper investigates the vulnerability of these infrastructures to space weather events and the need to monitor and predict these phenomena. In the next section, some examples of monitoring and forecasting systems created by different countries and space organizations are introduced. Also, the need to establish a national center in Iran is proposed. The initial organizational structure and mechanism for the activities and cooperation between this center and other national and international institutions are discussed. Finally, different types of actions and the most important activities that can be carried out in this center are presented.