nexustandards.com/hazards · 2 taught
Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction
NRS-H22 Solar-terrestrial storms; NRS-H23 Impacts and orbital hazards
2standards1discipline
Illustrative: satellite orbits, their ground swaths or the lines of sight a receiver keeps
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Technology and Digital Systems · Department of Cyber, Digital and Space Systems
Positioning, navigation, timing, satellite communication, space weather and debris
Space systems, space weather and navigation
Space systems, space weather and navigation covers the satellites, ground segments and services that provide positioning, navigation, timing and communication, and the risks to them from space weather, debris, interference and attack.
- Courses
- In preparation
- Levels
- In development
- Labs
- In development
- Positioning, navigation and timing
- Satellite communications
- Space weather and its effects
- Space debris and sustainability
- Interference, jamming and spoofing
- Ground segment resilience
- Space system dependency of critical services
- Space governance and data policy
Courses in development extend the scope to further subjects: Space weather risk and degraded operations; Space system dependency and resilience.
02Maps
Build a twin of any place
Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow space systems, space weather and navigation on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.
- Terrain 0 to 245 m
- 4 satellite dishes
- 74 communication masts and towers
- 12 telephone exchanges
- 7 data centres and cable landing stations
- 12 aerodromes
- 1 telecom offices
- Communication line 161 km
- 729 known exploited vulnerabilities since 2023-10-17
- Night-time lights, VIIRS day-night band: read live when the 3D twin opens
Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and – zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.
Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the mapped ground infrastructure by kind, the mapped cables and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.
The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).
03Live map
Earth observation in the Amazon Basin
True-colour imagery, land cover, vegetation, snow and sea ice, over the Amazon Basin.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 1
Earth observation
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Earth observation, framed on the Amazon Basin.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Optional layers (10 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Snow cover: VIIRS NOAA-20 NDSI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Sea ice concentration: GHRSST MUR, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
04The subject
The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies
The field and its scope
For infrastructure operators, satellite and ground-segment engineers, regulators and emergency planners who must understand what space services their systems depend on and what degrades them.
Quantities and units
Methods and their limits
Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.
What the field debates
Bodies that set practice, and the data they publish
Bodies and standards are named so learners can find and apply their published work; the Academy teaches their use and links to the publisher, and no affiliation is implied.
05The method
From a miss distance to a manoeuvre: how a conjunction becomes a probability of collision
A conjunction's probability of collision follows from the predicted miss distance, the combined position uncertainty of both objects and their combined size; an uncertainty that is too small or too large moves the figure by orders of magnitude, and the manoeuvre decision compares it with a threshold near one in ten thousand.
Sources: Kessler and Cour-Palais, Collision frequency of artificial satellites: The creation of a debris belt (1978); Liou and Johnson, Risks in Space from Orbiting Debris (2006); Vallado, Crawford, Hujsak and Kelso, Revisiting Spacetrack Report #3 (2006); UNOOSA, Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (2019).
06At a glance
At a glance, with 5 related topics
Space systems, space weather and navigation at a glance
risksacademy.comtechnology-digitaldiscipline
- Open, 0
- In preparation, 2
- Subtopics, 8
Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on
The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.
nexustandards.com/space · 2 taught
Space and Earth Observation
NRS-T5 Positioning, navigation and timing risk; NRS-T6 Earth observation and space systems risk
2standards1disciplinenexustandards.com/energy-infrastructure · 1 taught
Energy and Critical Infrastructure
NRS-H87 Space-based service loss
1standard1disciplinenexustandards.com/digital-ai · 1 taught
Digital, Cyber and AI
NRS-H106 Space technology and orbital infrastructure
1standard1discipline
Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review.
Research and tools
Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.
The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Space systems, space weather and navigation, each with its source and date. Open the research hub
Methods, frameworks and hazards
From the Academy's risk taxonomy: the discipline's own entries and those of its primary courses, with how many courses teach each.
Hazard families
- Space weather and near-Earth objectsscope
What is changing now
Recent developments in space systems, space weather and navigation, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026.
Courses in this discipline
Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.
The connected disciplines below teach the methods it builds on.
07Console
How Space systems, space weather and navigation is taught, as a process you can run
Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.
08Learning
Learning, practice and connections
Achievements in this discipline
Course achievements
One for each course with this as its primary discipline, earned when you pass the course's assessed activities.
Cross-faculty: Space and food
Courses in connected disciplines and a passed integrative task. In development.
An achievement is a record of the learning completed and assessed here. How recognition works.
Where the subject is practised
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada)Space and Earth ObservationCommunications and navigation, Space debris and sustainability, Space system resilience
Field platforms of the ecosystem where the subject is studied and applied.
The two Foundry systems where it is practised
- FoundryNXS-SIG systemPositioning, navigation and timing integrityPNT Integrity room, Spectrum room
- NXS-EOP systemSatellite acquisition planningAcquisition room
Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; the courses teach the methods these systems apply.
Disciplines it depends on
- Faculty of Risk Science and MethodsGeospatial analysis, Earth observation and GeoAIThe discipline covers the geospatial methods of risk analysis: GIS foundations, remote sensing and image analysis.
- Faculty of Earth and Environmental SciencesFood systems and agricultureFood systems risk concerns whether people can reliably obtain safe and nutritious food, from soils.
Across the ecosystem
09Take part
Take part in Technology and Digital Systems
Start from who you are.
10References
Core references and where to begin
Start with Liou, then Kessler, then Vallado.
11Questions
Questions, answers and key terms
Is study here free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the courses in space systems, space weather and navigation?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.
Key terms
Term
Global navigation satellite system
Satellite constellations that provide positioning, navigation and timing worldwide.
Term
Space weather
Conditions on the Sun and in near-Earth space that can disrupt satellites, power grids and radio.
Term
Geomagnetic storm
A disturbance of Earth's magnetic field caused by solar activity.
Term
Orbital debris
Defunct satellites and fragments in orbit that threaten operating spacecraft.
ReportsContribute
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
Risk Academy
Related
Around Space systems, space weather and navigation
Space systems, space weather and navigation
Prepare with a related course
Open courses in connected disciplines teach the methods this discipline will build on.