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Meeting Presentation: The Rise and Relevance of Space Weather Impacts on Amateur Radio in Solar Cycle 25
Similar to terrestrial weather, “Space Weather” causes a wide variety of issues that affect our daily lives. From the disruption of amateur radio communications and satellite GPS signals to the beautiful light displays of the aurora, this talk gives an overview of Space Weather and the multi-faceted impact it has on society. We begin with the origin of space weather phenomena at the Sun and the different ways these solar phenomena affect Earth, especially radio propagation. The extreme Space Weather events during the hurricanes of September 2017 will be used as a real-world demonstration and illustrates a new kind of a “perfect storm” in our modern world. Such examples show why Space Weather is becoming a critical component of modern weather and highlight how public perception and consumption of Space Weather science is changing.

Presenter: Dr. Tamitha Skov “Space Weather Woman”Tamitha Skov
holds B.S. degrees in physics and physical chemistry, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics and planetary physics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2004 she joined The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles where she worked as a Research Scientist in the Physical Sciences Laboratory for nearly 20 years. In 2019 she also joined Millersville University as an adjunct professor, teaching a graduate curriculum in space environment, communication and policy. Tamitha works primarily in the fields of solar and space physics research and in the testing of spacecraft materials in realistic space radiation environments. She has been an instructor at The Aerospace Institute and has served as an audio forensics analyst and instructor for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), funded by the Department of Justice. Her forecasting work as the “Space Weather Woman” is widely known on social media such as You Tube, Twitter, and Facebook. Tamitha has been featured in Popular Science Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and on television shows for The Weather Channel, The History Channel, NASA TV, and ARTE TV. She makes regular appearances online for TMRO Space News and for HRCC’s Ham Nation (formerly on TWiT TV), doing space weather forecasts under her amateur radio callsign WX6SWW.

www.spaceweatherwoman.com