Helio4Cast - a real time test environment to enhance space weather prediction at Earth

We introduce Helio4cast, an open source python package to provide real time solar wind predictions at the Sun-Earth L1 point, and to directly couple them to forecasts of the aurora oval, geomagnetically induced currents and further geomagnetic indices. We present its current status, using a combination of our PREDSTORM solar wind forecast and the real time modeling of the aurora with the OVATION model. The solar wind prediction is driven by data from either STEREO-A, a recurrence model, an empirical background solar wind model or a future L5 mission. For coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we plan to use our semi-empirical 3DCORE model to produce in situ magnetic flux rope signatures constrained by real-time solar observations, or a machine learning approach based on many previous observations of in situ CMEs. We are particularly interested in how the errors in the solar wind prediction propagate to ground-based observations. Challenges and future plans of the real-time implementation are discussed.