Mexican Space Weather Service (SCiESMEX)

Legislative modifications of the General Civil Protection Law in Mexico in 2014 included specific references to space hazards and space weather phenomena. The legislation is consistent with United Nations promotion of international engagement and cooperation on space weather awareness, studies, and monitoring. These internal and external conditions motivated the creation of a space weather service in Mexico. The Mexican Space Weather Service (SCiESMEX in Spanish) (www.sciesmex.unam.mx) was initiated in October 2014 and is operated by the Institute of Geophysics at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). SCiESMEX became a Regional Warning Center of the International Space Environment Services (ISES) in June 2015. We present the characteristics of the service, some products, and the initial actions for developing a space weather strategy in Mexico. The service operates a computing infrastructure including a web application, data repository, and a high‐performance computing server to run numerical models. SCiESMEX uses data of the ground‐based instrumental network of the National Space Weather Laboratory (LANCE), covering solar radio burst emissions, solar wind and interplanetary disturbances (by interplanetary scintillation observations), geomagnetic measurements, and analysis of the total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere (by employing data from local networks of GPS receiver stations). Plain Language Summary This paper introduces the Mexican Space Weather Service (SCiESMEX/www.sciesmex.unam.mx). Modifications in the legislation of the civil protection law in Mexico in 2014 included specific references to space hazards and space weather phenomena, while during the last few years the United Nations has promoted international engagement and cooperation on space weather awareness, studies and monitoring. These internal and external conditions motivated the creation of a space weather service in Mexico. SCiESMEX was initiated in October 2014 and is operated by the Institute of Geophysics at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). SCiESMEX became a Regional Warning Center of the International Space Environment Services in June 2015. We present the characteristics of the service, some products and the initial actions for developing a space weather strategy in Mexico. The service operates a computing infrastructure including a web application, data repository and a high‐performance computing server to run numerical models. SCiESMEX u