Our second featured presenter for the month of May is Shaun Dhal. Our discussion will focus on “Global Climate Issues; Space Weather Storms, Global Risks, History & International Collaboration”.
Shawn Dahl is a U.S. Air Force (USAF) retiree (22 years) where he spent most of his military career in the field of meteorology and space weather. He retired from active duty in 2007 and held several meteorological forecasting positions with the USAF and the NWS until 2015, when he was hired as a physical scientist and senior space weather forecaster by the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). He was selected as SWPC’s first Service Coordinator in August of 2023 and now leads Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS) issues, relations, and products. He also manages education/outreach initiatives and efforts and conducts many customer and partner interactions on behalf of SWPC.
Shawn’s presentation will cover space weather storms and detail the global risk of impactful events. The talk will detail how the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) provides decision support to critical technological infrastructure operators, government leadership, and emergency response staff when warranted. Collaboration with international partners is important today because space weather is a global threat. Therefore, the presentation will also cover SWPC collaboration efforts, key messaging, warnings, and related topics. Finally, we will look at some historical space weather storms and recent events that had or could have had a much more pronounced impact on our society.
Location: Boulder Creek Room of the Main Branch of the Boulder Public Library