The Space Environment Center (SEC) in Boulder, Colorado, is the nerve center for storms of extraterrestrial origin. SEC customers include NASA, the Department of Defense, power companies and airlines. Backyard astronomers rely on the predictions of enhanced geomagnetic activity that produce colorful Northern Lights.

Like the National Weather Service, the SEC gathers information from various satellites, including the popular SOHO spacecraft, and other observation stations. A host of forecasters employed around the clock analyze the data and produce daily forecasts and warnings.

The SEC is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent also of the National Weather Service. It runs its Space Weather Operations Center in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force.

The Senate Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2004 eliminates the SEC's $8.3 million budget. Corresponding legislation in the House would trim to $5.2 million. The bill has not yet been acted upon by the full House.

"Services, data and observations, and archiving would all disappear if the final appropriation is at the Senate level," said SEC Director Ernest Hildner in an open letter sent today to journalists and the agency's customers. "At the House funding level, starting Oct. 1 SEC will rapidly lose about half its staff, negatively affecting its ability to serve the nation."

Should the SEC be eliminated, Hildner said some other agency would have to take up the task, likely at a greater cost and with less efficiency. It is not clear that any other agency has the skill, budget and inclination to do the job, however.

"There is no evidence to suggest that NASA and the Air Force agree that one or the other, or both, should operate the Nation's civilian space weather service," Hildner said.