Request for Information - Space Weather Next Program - Partner Contributed Instrument Capabilites for the Space Weather Observations at L1 to Advance Readiness (SOLAR)-B Mission

1.2 The NOAA Space Weather Next Program and SOLAR-B Mission Overview

Space weather refers to those conditions in the space environment that may be damaging to technological systems deployed in space or on the ground and to humans in space. The NOAA Space Weather Observations (SWO) office vision is "a space weather ready nation," with a mission to “provide trusted space weather observations to safeguard society." This vision and mission are directly responsive to the legislative mandate of the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act of 2020. Specifically, the PROSWIFT Act mandates that NOAA shall "support competitive, peer-reviewed proposals for [..] monitoring of space weather and its impacts" and shall facilitate "research to operations and operations to research." NOAA is implementing this mission through the SWO Space Weather Next (SW Next) Program with acquisition assistance from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The SW Next Program's goal is to provide critical data to its primary customer, the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) to support its mission of ”safeguarding society with actionable space weather information.” The Space weather Observations at L1 to Advance Readiness (SOLAR) project ensures continuous, high availability, and low latency space weather observations from the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1). These measurements of the space environment and the Sun's outer atmosphere (corona) are critical for accurate space weather forecasts. The SOLAR project maintains observational continuity of real-time solar imagery and solar wind measurements (plasma properties and magnetic field), building upon capabilities from legacy missions like SOHO and DSCOVR, and the follow-on SWFO-L1 (now designated SOLAR-1). The SOLAR-A observatory is planned to launch in fiscal year 2030, to provide an operational overlap and cross-calibration with SOLAR-1 and to ensure continuity and resiliency of these measurements. A PCI for SOLAR-A has already been selected. This RFI concerns the SOLAR-B observatory, which is the second launch of the SOLAR project and will occur a few years after SOLAR-A. SOLAR-B's primary purpose is operational resiliency. It will extend measurement continuity, provide on-orbit redundancy and maximize the longevity of NOAA’s SOLAR observing constellation. SOLAR-B will be designed for five years of operation and will carry propellant for a possible additional five years of extended operations. The PCI for SOLAR-B represents a "next generation" opportunity, building upon the continuity established by SOLAR-A and SOLAR-1, and offering advanced capabilities to further NOAA's research to operations space weather goals.

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