Sunrise Session
Kent Tobiska
Space Weather Forecasts:
Aiding Disaster Recovery Efforts
This year’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Japan and created a massive tsunami resulted in 15,000 deaths and over 10,000 missing. It also contributed to a catastrophic nuclear meltdown, power outages, and widespread telecommunication destruction. In disasters such as this, essential societal infrastructure is at high risk of disruption, and alternate communications are needed. Within two days of the T?hoku earthquake, the USU Space Weather Center (SWC) was contributing its expertise with high-frequency radio, setting up a public website for real-time and forecasted HF communication access within Japan and globally. The SWC was established with Utah Science and Technology Research initiative (USTAR) funding and is expanding through partnerships with space physicists and companies from Utah and beyond. W. Kent Tobiska will describe the Japanese disaster recovery communication project and other cutting-edge capabilities of SWC.
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Kent TobiskaDirector (301) 573-4185 |
Dr. Kent Tobiska received his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Colorado and is now director of the Utah State University USTAR Space Weather Center. He is also president and chief scientist of Space Environment Technologies. His long-term research focus has been the analysis of solar data that has led to the creation of an internationally used space weather platform. He invented the world’s first operational computer code for solar irradiance forecasting and has led the effort to integrate space weather systems with broader technology systems. Through his career at the NOAA Space Environment Laboratory, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, Northrop Grumman/Logicon and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Tobiska has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on many projects to develop space instruments. He has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as eight books and major technical publications. Dr. Tobiska is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of American Geophysical Union, Committee On Space Research, and American Meteorological Society.
