Organization profile

The Institute for Space Weather Science (ISWS) promotes multi-disciplinary research and education on space, with a focus on the powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation, energetic charged particles, and magnetized plasma known as space weather. To understand and predict the physics of solar activities and their effects on space weather, the institute combines the strengths of three NJIT research centers – the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, the Center for Computational  Heliophysics and the Center for Big Data. At the Institute’s core is the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR). With its array of unique instruments on land and in space – the 1.6 meter Goode Solar Telescope, a newly expanded radio array with 15 antennas, instruments aboard NASA’s Van Allen Probes spacecraft, and devices deployed across Antarctica, to name a few – the center is uniquely poised to advance understanding of the genesis, acceleration and impact of solar storms, as well as to provide a comprehensive view of solar activity over months and years. Joining the CSTR are modeling and big data analytics experts at the Center for Computational Heliophysics, who partner with NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing Division at the NASA Ames Research Center, and researchers at the Center for Big Data. The latter’s mission is to synergize expertise in various disciplines across the NJIT campus and to build a unified platform that embodies a rich set of big data-enabling technologies and services with optimized performance. Within two years of its establishment, the institute obtained an $850,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) EarthCube award, aimed at the transformation of geosciences research and education and sponsored through a partnership between the NSF Directorate of Geosciences and the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. It also established a Research Experiences for Undergraduates site through another NSF award.