The SWx TREC Research Enterprise conducts innovative, basic, and applied research in space domain science (SDS), machine learning, geomagnetically induced electric and magnetic fields, and related topics to better understand and predict space weather phenomena. 

SWx TREC researchers work across multiple departments, colleges, and institutes at the University of Colorado and collaborate with other universities, government agencies, and industries. These partnerships enable breakthrough advances in understanding the solar and space physics principles that underlie space weather and its impacts on critical infrastructure systems.

Space Domain Science

SWx TREC is the host of the NASA Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) center – a center of excellence in orbital space weather prediction. SWORD will work to couple predictive models of the magnetosphere with models of the ionosphere-thermosphere-mesosphere (ITM) system and add upper atmospheric data assimilation to create the first fully coupled, data assimilative, forecasting model for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) density predictions. SWORD will also develop real-time solar irradiance inputs to ITM models based on the GOES/EXIS instruments developed at CU/LASP. Finally, SWORD will conduct research into advanced machine learning to accelerate ITM model ensembles and enhance data assimilation.

Global Electric and Magnetic Perturbations Research

Space weather often creates perturbations in Earth’s electric and magnetic fields, most noticeably through the visible aurora. In addition to aurora, space weather is also directly associated with other disturbances in the broader Sun-Earth system: the global electric circuit; transient current sources in the ionosphere and magnetosphere; diverse conductive channels; and a variety of charge distributions that incorporate many different regions and scales throughout the Sun-Earth system.

Critical infrastructure like the power grid and transmission lines are conductively tied into this natural electrical system and consequently are affected by these field disturbances. The diversity in discipline and scale makes perturbations in the electric and magnetic system a frontier research problem for solar-terrestrial system studies. And the impact on the electrical infrastructure makes such disturbances a space weather area of research relevant to society.