The recipient has developed a new tool under a previous grant to visualize the solar wind environment in a fully interactive 3D environment

The University of Colorado (UEI: SPVKK1RC2MZ3) received a $149,976 Project Grant award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (CFDA 43.001) to advance the development of a new 3D visualization tool for the solar wind environment. Under a prior grant, the recipient brought the tool to Technology Readiness Level 4, and this award will support transitioning it to Readiness Levels 5-6 through validation testing within the operational workflows of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center and the UK Met Office. Making this 3D visualization capability available to forecasters is expected to enable deeper investigations of out-of-plane effects and "near-misses" that are not readily apparent in the current 2D visualizations, leading to improved space weather forecasting products for the public. The award period runs from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025.

Under that effort the recipient are able to bring the tool to readiness level (RL) 4 (successful evaluation of system subsystem process product service or tool in a laboratory or other experimental environment). Researchers and FORECASTERS at NOAA swpc and the UK met office have expressed great interest in moving forward with validation testing in their operational workflows. This capability is thus ready for the next step in the transition process the intended end-users (FORECASTERS) are interested in IT and the team is primed and able to efficiently move forward with this additional work that would bring this application to RL-6 (demonstration of a prototype system subsystem process product service or tool in relevant or test environment).given that the recipient have emphasized solid software engineering best practices and have used a containerized cloud-first paradigm for our development and testing which is the same approach that the ccmc and swpc ACE platform utilizes the recipient estimate the RL for our tool to be at RL-4 and thus expect the transition of our tool to RL-5/RL-6 to be relatively straightforward and able to be completed within the timeframe allotted. Making this visualization technique available to FORECASTERS will allow them to investigate out-of-plane effects and near-misses that are otherwise uncaught with the current 2D slices that are used within the operational centers. This will enable deeper investigations by the FORECASTERS and better output forecast products for the public.