What sustained multi-disciplinary research can achieve: The space weather modeling framework

Funding Information: Acknowledgements. This work was supported by NASA DRIVE Science Center grant 80NSSC20K0600 and NASA MMS grant 80NSSC19K0564, NASA LWS grants 80NSSC20K0185, 80NSSC20K0190, 80NSSC20K1778 and 80NSSC17K0681, NASA SSW grant 80NSSC20K0854, NASA HSR 80NSSC20K1313, NASA 80NSSC21K0047, the NSF PRE-EVENTS grant 1663800 and NSF SWQU grant PHY-2027555. The authors thank Drs. John Dorelli and Natalia Buzulukova for providing their unpublished result to be shown in the paper (Fig. 15). The authors also thank Ms. Deborah Eddy for making the paper more readable. Publisher Copyright: © T.I. Gombosi et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2021.Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)-based global space weather models have mostly been developed and maintained at academic institutions. While the "free spirit"approach of academia enables the rapid emergence and testing of new ideas and methods, the lack of long-Term stability and support makes this arrangement very challenging. This paper describes a successful example of a university-based group, the Center of Space Environment Modeling (CSEM) at the University of Michigan, that developed and maintained the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) and its core element, the BATS-R-US extended MHD code. It took a quarter of a century to develop this capability and reach its present level of maturity that makes it suitable for research use by the space physics community through the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) as well as operational use by the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).Peer reviewe