Primary Convener:
Lulu Zhao, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Convener:
Kathryn Whitman, KBR/NASA JSC
Eric Adamson, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
M. Mays, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Community Coordinated Modeling Center

Chair:
M. Mays, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Community Coordinated Modeling Center
Lulu Zhao, Florida Institute of Technology

As humanity’s reliance on space-based technology deepens—and ambitions for human space exploration expand to Mars—the need to understand and predict the space environment becomes urgent. Despite remarkable progress in heliospheric modeling, significant gaps remain between models developed for fundamental scientific understanding and the requirements of real-world operational use, including the mismatches between what scientific models deliver and what end-users need, limited awareness of real-time operational data streams, constrained computational infrastructure for running physics-based models, and the need for models to rapidly adapt to new observational datasets—especially as more spacecraft dedicated to space weather monitoring becomes available.This session aims to bring together model developers, observers, and end-users to explore how models can better address the gaps—in terms of model capabilities, I/O workflows, validation approaches, or computational infrastructure. This session encourages dialogue on how the heliospheric modeling community can enhance its impact in space weather forecasting, policy-making, and risk mitigation.

Index Terms
7924 Forecasting
7959 Models
7964 Policy
7984 Space radiation environment

Neighborhoods:
4. Beyond Earth

Suggested Itineraries:
Space Weather