Background

For a long time, extreme space weather and its potential consequences to vital infrastructure have been a relatively unknown field of research. However, as present day society grows increasingly dependent on technology such as the electrical grid and satellite services, it becomes more and more urgent to acknowledge the risks associated with extreme space weather events. In the Netherlands, solar flares were first listed as a potential threat in the publications of the National Risk Profiles in 2011 and 2015. After these publications, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security sent a letter to Parliament proposing governmental actions in order to decrease these risks to satellite services and vital sectors. The responsibility for potentially affected vital infrastructures resides under both the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and  Climate. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) was assigned the tasks to develop a space weather alert, create awareness for these risks and build-up a knowledge base within the government. For these tasks KNMI cooperates with various international operational space weather centers.

Space weather, as a potential societal threat, has also appeared on the radar of the Ministry of Defense. On 20 August 2015, the Ministry of Defense opened the Space Security Center (SSC). This resulted from the implementation of the Military Strategic Vision (2010) en the Dutch Defense Doctrine (2013). Within the Ministry of Defense, the field of space weather resides under the Joint Meteorological Group (JMG), based in Woensdrecht, which has close ties to the SSC. Where the KNMI holds responsibilities over the institution of a space weather alarm (for all Dutch soil including the Caribbean islands), the JMG holds responsibility for space weather forecasting and warnings related any military operations in the Netherlands or elsewhere.

A sufficient foundation of expertise cannot be build or sustained without research and participation in international programs. Automatically, this will lead to innovative undertakings as well as a broad support of the implemented forecasting and warning features. The space weather alarm’s sole purpose is mitigation of extreme space weather effects yet new and innovative technology might also lead to adaptive measures to protect society from detrimental space weather effects. Also, improving present day space weather forecasting techniques require expertise and observing infrastructure.

The first Dutch space weather collaboration, between KNMI, ASTRON and NLR, lead to the Dutch participation in the SWE-component of the ESA Space Situational Awareness Program (ESA-SSA). Through this initial partnership, multiple organizations came together to share expertise, knowledge and space weather developments. Fundamental space weather research is performed by organizations such as CWI and TUD. Some parties involved, like FUGRO and Kadaster, are reliant on technology vulnerable to space weather effects and therefore perform their own research.

Along the way, the wish to solidify these partnerships and establish a networking organization grew. Hence, SWENED was founded in September 2018 through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (see photo). This Memorandum of Understanding reflected the intentions of participating parties to collaborate on a non-exclusive basis, in good faith, and without legal obligations. SWENED intends to meet twice a year.