At a ribbon cutting at the Space Environment Center (SEC) facility in Boulder, Colo., officials from NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the Japanese Communications Research Laboratory, and others, celebrated the cooperative efforts that permitted SEC to successfully receive the data. Congratulations were also received from the President's science advisor, Jack Gibbons, who commended the agencies involved for this achievement.

Dr. Elbert (Joe) Friday, director of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research for NOAA, spoke at the gathering and predicted that the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) "will become as significant to space weather forecasting as meteorological satellites are in forecasting weather on Earth."

SEC personnel at the NOAA/SEC Center declared the data from ACE operational on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Once operational, the ACE measurements become an integral part of predicting geomagnetic storms.

"This is a great advance for space weather forecasting. We now have a satellite strategically positioned between the sun and the Earth, intercepting solar winds and geomagnetic activity and allowing us to warn users such as satellite operations, electric power control centers and others of a potential threat," said Ernie Hildner, SEC director.

ACE is a coordinated project between NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force. Both NOAA and Air Force forecasters are incorporating the ACE data into operations, allowing the agencies to issue one-hour geomagnetic storm alerts with almost 100 percent accuracy.

Tracking stations around the globe transmit the data to SEC forecasters. These stations are located in Japan and England, and include global tracking networks such as that run by the Air Force, and the NASA Deep Space network.

Geomagnetic storms develop when masses of highly energetic charged particles are ejected from the sun and, subsequently, hit Earth's magnetic field. When the Earth encounters these storms, extraordinary fluctuations occur, at times severe enough to disrupt technological systems on satellites and on the ground. The ACE satellite measures the chemical composition of escaping particles from the sun, as well as solar winds' speed, density and magnetic field. The data is relayed to Earth by transmitter and used by forecasters to issue alerts.

The sun recently began a new 11-year solar cycle, which is expected to peak around March 2000. "The timing couldn't be better as we are moving into a new solar cycle and expecting increased solar activity that threatens technological systems on Earth," added Hildner. "With ACE data we can provide the operators of technological systems additional time to adjust operations to minimize disruptions."

NOAA's Space Environment Center is the nation's official source of space weather alerts and warnings. The Center continually monitors and forecasts Earth's space environment; provides accurate, reliable and useful solar-terrestrial information; and leads programs to improve services.

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