51 U.S.C. § 60603 — Sustaining and advancing critical space weather observations

(a) Policy. It is U.S. policy to (1) build and maintain a baseline level of space weather observation, and make those observations and their data public; and (2) get enhanced observations, where practical, to improve forecasting and prediction, guided by the integrated strategy required under section 60602. (b) Sustaining Baseline Space-based Observational Capabilities. (1) NASA's Administrator, working with the European Space Agency and other partners, must keep operating the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory / Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (SOHO/LASCO) for as long as it keeps delivering good data. (2) NASA's Administrator must prioritize receiving SOHO/LASCO's data. (3) NOAA's Administrator must keep operating, as long as practical, its current space-based assets — including but not limited to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites system and the Deep Space Climate Observatory. (c) Backup Space-based Observational Capability. NOAA's Administrator, coordinating with the Secretary of Defense and NASA's Administrator, must work with federal and international partners to secure a reliable backup source of near-real-time coronal mass ejection imagery, solar wind data, solar imaging, coronal imagery, and other observations needed for space weather forecasts. (d) SOHO/LASCO Operational Contingency Plan. NOAA's Administrator must create a contingency plan to keep space weather forecasting going if SOHO/LASCO fails unexpectedly, and must do this before the backup capability in subsection (c) is up and running. (e) Briefing. No later than 120 days after the PROSWIFT Act became law, NOAA's Administrator had to brief the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the plan to secure the backup capability in subsection (c) and the contingency plan in subsection (d). (f) Sustaining Ground-based Observational Capability. The Director of the National Science Foundation, the Director of the United States Geological Survey, the Secretary of the Air Force, and — as practical, in support of the Air Force — the Secretary of the Navy, must each: (1) maintain and improve ground-based observations of the Sun as needed to meet the needs identified in the survey under section 60601(d)(3); and (2) keep providing space weather data through ground-based facilities, including radars, lidars, magnetometers, neutron monitors, radio receivers, aurora and airglow imagers, spectrometers, interferometers, and solar observatories. (g) Considerations. In carrying out subsections (b), (c), and (d), the NASA and NOAA Administrators, the Directors of the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Secretaries of the Air Force and Navy must prioritize solutions that are cost-effective and reliable. (h) Ground-based Observational Data. The Director of the National Science Foundation must: (1) make key data streams from the platforms and facilities described in subsection (d) publicly available for research and to support building space weather models; (2) develop experimental models for scientific purposes; and (3) support moving those experimental models into operational use where appropriate. (i) Enhanced Space-based Observations. NOAA's Administrator, coordinating with the Secretary of Defense, should develop options to build and deploy space-based observation capabilities beyond the baseline described in subsection (b), to improve space weather measurements and observations. These added capabilities could include commercial solutions, prize competitions, academic partnerships, microsatellites, ground-based instruments, and chances to fly an instrument as a secondary payload on a planned launch.