Ingredients for a successful Space Weather service

A general user requirement for a Space Weather service is reliability of that service. The user may or may not require the data, model, forecast, simulation, etc. every minute of every day, but come the time when it’s needed it has to be there. A successful operational Space Weather service therefore needs 24/7 availability with a high level of reliability. To do this it needs to be resilient with built in redundancy at all possible points of failure. Often near real-time outputs will be required using real-time measurements, adding to the complexity of maintaining the service. In the operation of its magnetic observatories, and in order to support Space Weather monitoring services, BGS has attempted to develop infrastructure, systems and operations to optimise the real-time delivery of accurate data and data products. From this basis, reliable and resilient services can be provided. One example currently under development is the BGS Monitoring and Analysis of Geomagnetically Induced Currents (MAGIC). This is an advancement of an earlier prototype service developed under the ESA Space Weather Pilot Project scheme and is designed for the operators of the UK power grid. In this paper we describe the systems in place for real-time observatory data processing and we describe how the complete data processing and delivery system has evolved to eliminate single points of failure. The MAGIC space weather service is also described and statistics on the real-time reliability of the products derived from magnetic observatory data are presented.