Memorandum 20
Submission from Professor Alan Rodger,
Head of Science Programmes, British Antarctic Survey
SCIENCE BUDGET
ALLOCATIONS
The STFC Delivery Plan Contains two critical
statements that Combined, I believe, will lead to the rapid demise
of STP. These are:
(a) All ground based STP facilities are to
close.
(b) Grants will only be used to exploit facilities
being operated by STFC.
The consequence will be that the UK will
lose a critical national carability that has direct and indirect
economic value. Hence the proposed cuts at STFC are fundamentally
different from the others proposed in the recent delivery
STFC plan.
STP provides the basic knowledge of the space
environment—an environment upon which we rely to an ever-greater
extent in the 21st century. Changes in the space environment,
known as space weather events, pose natural hazards for satellite
operations. One space weather event can cause the complete loss
of satellites at -300 million each and there are now 300 satellites
in space, the majority of which are used for commerce in some
form or other. Many are also insured through the City of London
insurance market.
The accuracy of global positioning systems including
the European Galileo depends upon space weather. STP provides
the expertise to design, protect and exploit the system.
Even aircraft and their passengers are affected
by additional radiation dose during space weather events, and
for which STP provides the underpinning knowledge.
Space weather events are frequent and occur
with varying severity, their prediction is the ultimate goal of
STP research.
There is a second and completely different dimension
to STP research—namely Sun-climate links. It is critical
that we quantify now the solar induced effects on climate change
so we can predict more accurately the anthropogenic ones. Even
IPCC 2007 and Sir Keith O'Nions[41]
in recent evidence to the Public Accounts committee agree this
is important.
STP research is essentially an environmental
science. It needs measurements distributed in space and time,
including long-term measurements of the secular changes of the
Earth and the Sun. To be highly effective, one needs to combine
measurements from the ground and from space—together; these
provide much more than the sum of the parts. This is why the proposed
closure of all ground-based STP facilities effectively leads to
a loss of national capability in SIP as a whole. Essentially the
approach is akin to that of the UK Met Office -just a few hundred
kilometres higher up in the atmosphere.
The independent report for the Institute of
Physics report concluded in 2005 that the UK is a world leader
both in Sun-climate science and space weather.
As we take to space and the skies even more, where
is the knowledge base and the supply of bright young minds going
to come from to maintain this critical national capability in
SIP if the current plans of STFC are carried through? I see another
nuclear industry situation arising—we will have to import
all the skills in the future if we cut off the supply now.
In conclusion I urge you to examine the potential
loss of UK National Capability in solar terrestrial physics (SIP)
with particular care during the forthcoming review Science Budget
Allocations. SIP directly underpins commercial interests and Government
policy.
January 2008
41 Sir Keith said "physics of the upper atmosphere
there will be a very key part of climate change"-Big Science:
Public Investment in Large Scientific Facilities, Question 65,
9 May 2007, HC 153-i. Back
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