Addressing the Dynamic Energetic Particle Environment for Space Radiation Operations at NASA

NASA's Artemis missions are taking astronauts back to the Moon with a view towards Mars. The dynamic space climate and space weather environment is a concern for space radiation operations and the protection of astronauts. The NASA Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) at Johnson Space Center is developing the requirements and tools needed for quick operational response to space weather events during mission operations. To estimate long-timescale changes in the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) background due to solar modulation, SRAG maintains and develops NASA's Badhwar-O'Neill galactic cosmic ray (GCR) model. On short timescales, SRAG provides measurements, tools, expertise, and console support to keep crew safe during explosive solar energetic particle (SEP) events. In the past few years, SRAG, in collaboration with NASA Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) and the Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office (M2M), has been working directly with the research community to onboard SEP models into real time operations. Real time forecasts are visualized in the SEP Scoreboards developed by CCMC and currently under evaluation by SRAG for radiation operations. An intensive validation effort has been ongoing to develop the infrastructure and standards for the validation of SEP model performance. This effort has broadly engaged the US, European, and worldwide scientific community through community challenges as well as focused on the evaluation of model performance in a real time operational environment. These efforts and preliminary outcomes will be described.