Extreme Events

Economic Benefits (Research on the economic benefits of / cost mitigation by NOAA data & products related to Space Weather)

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1. The direct global economic impact of space weather has been estimated at about $200 million per year. A one percent gain in continuity and availability of GPS information, which can be disrupted by space weather events, would be worth $180 million per year (Hildner, 2003).
2. Preventative measures, based on early forecasts from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) and its partners, can help mitigate the need for such costly alternatives as shielding power lines. One recent estimate suggested that the use of good forecasts by the power industry could save the U.S. $365 million per year, averaged over the solar cycle (Hildner, 2003).
3. The economic benefits of providing reliable warnings of geomagnetic storms to the electric power industry alone would be approximately $450 million over three years - much above the $100 million projected cost of the system (Teisberg and Weiher, 2000).
4. Let me begin by pointing out the significant commercial investment and critical telecommunication services that are at risk resulting from space weather effects. $49.8 billion of revenue was generated and $12.1 billion of investments were made in 2002 in this industry and these figures are expected to grow over the next 10 years. The functions that NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) performs to model, predict, and send out alerts on space weather has been and continues to be critical to Commercial Satellite Operators Loral Space and Communications LTD, 2003 (Hedinger, 2003).