Boston University will receive a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation to serve as headquarters for a consortium working to develop a computer model to forecast space weather, the University announced yesterday.

The NSF grant will provide support to the University over the next five years, and is renewable for an additional five years. It will fund the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM), a part of NSF’s Science and Technology Center.

CISM’s consortium contains seven other universities, including Alabama A ‘ M, Dartmouth College, Rice University, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Texas at El Paso. Government and industrial organizations will also be involved in the project.

BU Astronomy Professor and CISM Director W. Jeffrey Hughes said the main goal of the project is to build a complete model that accurately forecasts space weather. Partial models of some regions of space already exist, but Hughes said he hopes to accurately forecast space weather at least two days in advance.

Space weather involves the sun, the solar wind and the outer areas of the earth, according to a press release from BU public relations. The electricity, or “weather,” emitted from the sun and solar wind can have an impact on Earth and interfere with satellites and other space technology.

One of the most recent and most problematic examples of the effects of space weather occurred in May of 1998, when a satellite controlling many pager systems in the United States failed.

In addition to satellite interference, space weather can cause power outages, force aircraft to reroute, disrupt communications and put astronauts at risk of radiation exposure. By forecasting space weather, CISM estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in damages could be saved per year.

NSF and CISM will focus on education as one of their major objectives, according to a BUPR press release. BU will host graduate summer school programs and teacher workshops, and implement the center’s research into undergraduate programs, the University announced.

“What goes on within our center is going to impact BU faculty,” said Ramon Lopez, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and co-director of the education program at CISM. “There will be lots of opportunities for undergraduates who want to get involved in research, because there will [now] be funds for them.”

Charles Goodrich, deputy director of CISM, said the University has been very supportive of CISM’s efforts.

“To get a grant like this you have to have tremendous institutional support,” Goodrich said.

BU Provost Dennis Berkey said he thought bringing the project to BU would help students and the general public learn more about astronomy.

“We believe many citizens will learn much about space as a result of this project,” Berkey said.

Matthew Gjenvick, a first-year graduate student in the astronomy department, said he was excited to hear that BU received the grant.

“Space weather impacts everyone these days,” Gjenvick said. “It’s important to study these things because there’s actual applications for them.”