December 1, 2021, 10:00-2:00 PM ET
Venue: Webinar
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SWAG Nongovernmental End User Representative
Senior Engineer and Manager
Reliability Assessments, North American Electric Reliability Corporation
Atlanta, GA
Mark Olson is the Manager of Reliability Assessments at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). He joined NERC in October 2012 and has been involved with Reliability Assessments, Reliability Standards, and NERC’s Technical Committees. From 2013-2018, he oversaw the development and introduction of state-of-the-art Reliability Standards for reducing the risk of geomagnetic disturbances to the reliable operation of the North American electric grid. He also led the creation of a GMD data collection program for the U.S. electric grid owners and operators and coordinated with government, academic, and industry stakeholders to carry out a GMD research collaboration focused on electric grid impacts from space weather. In 2020-2021, he served on the organizing committee for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop on U.S. Space Weather Operations and Research Infrastructure.
Since 2018, Mark has led the reliability assessments department in carrying out NERC’s vision for a highly reliable and secure grid by assessing and reporting on long-term trends and emerging issues affecting the electricity supply, demand, and transmission in North America.
Before joining NERC, Mark was a career officer in the U.S. Navy where he served in various positions related to the operations and management of surface ships and naval personnel. He has a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy. He holds a Professional Engineer license in the State of Georgia.
SWAG Nongovernmental End User Representative
Retired, (former) Director, Flight Dispatch
Network Operation Control Center, United Airlines
Ashburn, VA
Mr. Stills has been the space weather community’s go-to person on aviation issues for two decades. He became the voice of the U.S. aviation community on space weather related matters and was regularly consulted for his expertise both by the space weather community and his colleagues in aviation. In addition to the stellar career highlights identified in his resume, as Senior Manager of International at United Airlines he performed annual audits mandated by the FAA for Polar Operations. Operations Specifications are a government requirement which permit an operator to fly in certain regions or operate with special procedures. Part of the Polar Operations Specification (B055) mandate was to monitor and plan for solar activity, for which Mr. Stills created the operational procedures. United is the most experienced polar operator in the world, but the procedures developed encompassed more than just polar. The audits and associated work focused on communication capability and radiation issues during space weather storms. He was involved in the analysis of impacts to HF in addition to monitoring solar radiation. He led many discussions with company safety representatives along with labor officials at various times of his career. He was the key conduit between SWPC and United Airlines during many impactful space weather outbreaks, including the 2003 Halloween storm when United directed flight profile changes to all flights, including domestic flying over the contiguous 48.
SWAG Nongovernmental End User Representative
Chief Emergency Management Officer
One Concern
Gainesville, FL
Fugate’s strategy of setting ambitious goals, establishing clear expectations, and pushing people out of their comfort zones drove FEMA to achieve more in a shorter period of time than many believed possible. Fugate established a leadership culture within FEMA in which taking risks and leaning forward to meet the needs of survivors became a baseline expectation. Fugate established a sweeping policy requiring all FEMA employees to have a disaster role in addition to their day-job. Fugate instituted a comprehensive academic and experiential qualification system for the Agency’s disaster workforce and created thirteen National and Regional Incident Management Assistance Teams to deploy early in support of state, local, tribal, and territorial partners.
During his tenure, Fugate focused not only on restoring FEMA’s response capabilities but on promoting emergency management as a community and shared responsibility. Fugate instituted a permanent effort to build the nation’s capacity to stabilize a catastrophic event within 72 hours. He drove completion of Presidential policy on national preparedness and implemented the National Preparedness System to build unity of effort to address the nation's most significant risks. On Fugate’s watch, FEMA awarded more than $19 billion in preparedness grants, supported more than 700 drills and exercises in 47 states, and had more than 40 million participants take part in grassroots community preparedness drills.
FEMA under Fugate’s leadership fostered a balanced, community-oriented approach to emergency management that builds sustainable and resilient communities before and after disaster strikes. FEMA invested more than $7 billion in hazard mitigation assistance during Fugate’s tenure even as the Agency took steps to require disaster grantees to rebuild to hazard-resistant codes and standards in FEMA funded post-disaster grant projects. During Fugate’s tenure, rates of adoption for disaster resilient building codes nationwide increased from 40% in 2009 to 63% in 2016. Fugate also provided Federal Government-wide leadership on reducing disaster risk through efforts to develop for President Obama’s approval executive orders that reduce the Nation’s flood, earthquake, and wildfire risk through managed Federal investment in hazard-prone areas.
Fugate was a tireless advocate for technology and innovation in emergency management. FEMA’s use of technology to support operations and enable decision-making flourished under Fugate’s leadership and FEMA led the Federal Government in freeing its data and allowing the general public to make use of it. Fugate oversaw a dramatic increase in online registration for Federal disaster assistance through a streamlined, single front-door portal. He also directed the creation of a FEMA App that enables FEMA response efforts through public reporting functionality, supports individuals and families with preparedness tips and hazard alerts, and helps survivors access FEMA assistance when disaster strikes.
FEMA under Fugate’s leadership resolved significant, long-standing management challenges. He renewed FEMA’s career senior executive service cadre, prioritizing leadership capability and management acumen over specific expertise and ensuring the cadre’s ability to take on a broad array of management challenges. Fugate cut red tape and increased clarity by streamlining or eliminating outdated and confusing policies, slashing the Agency’s inventory of policies from more than 2,000 to fewer than 200. Fugate also resolved a dramatic backlog of open Government Accountability Office and Inspector General recommendations, decreasing in the number of findings levied on the Agency each year.
Prior to his service in the Obama Administration, Fugate served as Florida’s Emergency Management Director. As the State Coordinating Officer for 11 Presidentially-declared disasters, he managed more than $4 billion in Federal disaster assistance. In 2004, Fugate managed the largest Federal disaster response in Florida history as four major hurricanes - Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne - impacted the state in quick succession. In 2005, Florida was again impacted by major disasters when three more hurricanes - Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma - made landfall in the state. The impact from Katrina was felt more strongly in the Gulf coast states to the west but Florida launched the largest mutual aid response in its history in support of those states. Under Fugate’s stewardship, Florida’s emergency management program became the first statewide program in the Nation to receive full accreditation from the Emergency Management Accreditation Program.
In 2016, he was the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) Lacy E. Suiter Award honoree for lifetime achievements and contributions in the field of emergency management.
Fugate and his wife Sheree now reside in Gainesville, Florida.
In 2017, Fugate formed Craig Fugate Consulting LL to pursue his goals of building a more resilient nation and train the next generation of emergency managers
SWAG Nongovernmental End User Representative
Principal Scientist
Aerospace Corp.
El Segundo, CA
Dr. Rebecca L. Bishop is a Principal Scientist in the Space Science Applications Laboratory at The Aerospace Corporation where she actively researches the near-Earth space environment, space weather events, and their impacts DoD and civil systems. Her specialty is ionospheric physics and utilizing GNSS navigational signals to observe the space environment. Dr. Bishop has led the design, development, and testing of a CubeSat capable GPS Radio Occultation (RO) sensor to measure plasma density and scintillation inducing structures. She is the principal investigator of a NASA supported CubeSat mission to study nighttime features in the ionosphere/thermosphere. Currently she is the instrument lead for a GPS RO sensor to be hosted on a joint US-Brazil SPORT CubeSat mission. Additional to satellite instrumentation, Dr. Bishop has been a part of several sounding-rocket and International Space Station hosted experiments, and provided technical support to DoD, NASA, and NOAA satellite missions. One of her areas of interest is to improve communication between the science community and end users in order to better inform users of the potential impacts of the space environment on their technology. Dr. Bishop is a member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine’s Committee on Solar and Space Physics and NASA Heliophysics Advisory Committee. She holds B.S. degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Idaho and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas.
SWAG Commercial Sector Representative
VP of Research and Development
Computational Physics, Inc.
Lafayette, CO
Dr. Gannon is an expert in the space weather hazard due to Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs). On this topic, she has worked with federal scientists at NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and the National Space and Aeronautics Administration (NASA), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), as well as numerous end users in the power sector.
Dr. Gannon is regularly asked to speak a technical and policy conferences. This year, she was an invited speaker or panelist at the following: IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) General Meeting; National Academies of Science “NOAA-NASA-NSF Workshop on Space Weather Infrastructure”; Space Weather Enterprise Forum (SWEF); Space Weather Workshop; and the Helio2050 Workshop.
Dr. Gannon is heavily involved with the space weather community, in her professional role and research, as well as participation in the Space Weather Journal as an Editor, and as a lead coordinator for the Space Weather Community Discussions organizing community whitepaper input to the upcoming Helio Decadal Survey.
SWAG Commercial Sector Representative
Executive Chairman
GeoOptics, Inc.
Dunwoody, GA
NOAA Administrator from 2001 to 2008 and for 21 years have been and remain a strong champion of NOAA’s Space Weather activities. Served as CEO and now serving as Executive Chairman of GeoOptics, Inc, a commercial provider of data needed and used daily for understanding the many effects of space weather. Regular attendee and contributor in government and commercial Space Weather planning. deliberation and future planning.
Testified on the importance of increased national resources for Space Weather including commercial space weather efforts, reliability and costs.
Met individually with Senators, House members, and staffers, as well as providing supporting correspondence. Results include the PROSWIFT Legislation.
Proposed contracts/grants for radio occultation for spacecraft observations, including for increased data and resolution. Proposed free-flying opportunities for commercial small businesses; proposed more efficient and higher quality reliable experiments and availability of data.
Member of most recent National Academy of Sciences Workshop, chaired sessions on the effects of space weather and need for increased understanding and resources; have presented numerous invited space weather presentations at public meetings to government, academic, military, and civilian audiences on commercial aspects and benefits of the space weather programs.
Strong background in working within both Republican and Democratic Administrations and with Congress to provide the necessary critical legislation, national funding support, and a robust organizational structure for space weather and for other scientific areas.
SWAG Commercial Sector Representative
Principal
Lockheed Martin
Bethesda, MD
Dr. Seth Jonas is a Principal for the Lockheed Martin Studies and Analysis group where he leads strategic studies and analyses to inform investments in science and technology to continue Lockheed Martin’s global leadership in national security technologies and capabilities. He has experience in policy analysis, strategy and metric development, program evaluation, and quantitative analysis across a broad range of topics and technologies. Select areas of study include risk analysis; infrastructure security and resilience; threat and hazard preparedness; domestic incident response; supply chain resilience; space weather; electromagnetic pulses; positioning, navigation, and timing systems; Federal Government continuity programs; and emergency preparedness communications.
Recently, Dr. Jonas served in multiple roles on the White House National Security Council, including Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Senior Director for Resilience and Response. He was a 2017 US-UK Fulbright Scholar, serving as a visiting researcher at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Deputy Head of Resilience (Acting) at the UK Government Office for Science. Dr. Jonas was a senior member of the research staff at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute, where he provided analysis and strategic guidance to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a variety other national security and science-focused executive branch agencies, including the development and implementation of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan.
Dr. Jonas has held fellowships at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and with the JASON scientific advisory group for U.S. national security. He holds an MA and a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University, and two BS degrees from the University of Central Florida in physics and liberal science studies (math and chemistry).
SWAG Commercial Sector Representative
President
Space Environment Technologies
Pacific Palisades, CA
Dr. W. Kent Tobiska is the President and Chief Scientist of Space Environment Technologies (SET). A long-term research focus has been the analysis of solar irradiance data that has led to the creation of the internationally distributed solar irradiance platform (SIP). He invented the world’s first operational computer code for solar irradiance forecast and extended this expertise into operational space weather systems. His work with forecasting the geomagnetic storm index, Dst, led to the first 6-day prediction of geomagnetic storms that is now used in operational systems. For the aviation radiation environment, he led the development of the NASA-funded Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) program that now provides real-time, global radiation hazard awareness. He has led U.S. Air Force projects for developing operational ionosphere forecast systems, the communication alert and prediction system (CAPS), and the USSF HASDM operational solar and geomagnetic forecasts. For Utah State Uni versity’s Space Weather Center (SWC, he directed the commercialization of the GAIM physics-based data assimilation ionosphere through developed derivative products for HF frequency forecasts and GPS single frequency position accuracy. Throughout his career at NOAA Space Environment Laboratory, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, SET, and SWC, he has been a Principal Investigator (PI) on USAF, USSF, NASA, and NOAA projects. He has been the COSPAR C1 Sub-Commission (Thermosphere & Ionosphere) Chair, the COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA) Task Force Chair, and was a Session Organizer for 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 COSPAR scientific sessions. He serves as lead U.S. delegate to ISO for the space environment and developed the ISO solar irradiance and Earth atmosphere density standards; he was the AIAA Atmospheric and Space Environment Technical Committee (ASETC) Committee on Standards (CoS) chair. He serves on the Executive Committee for the American Commercial Space Weather Association. He has authored/co-authored over 200 peer-review scientific papers as well as 10 books and major technical publications. Dr. Tobiska is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a member of American Geophysical Union, Committee On Space Research, American Meteorological Society, and the ISO TC20/SC14 TAG.
SWAG Commercial Sector Representative
Heliophysics Mission Area Lead
Ball Aerospace
Boulder, CO
Dr. Nicole Duncan is the Heliophysics Mission Area Lead for Ball Aerospace's Civil Space business unit. In this role, she manages a portfolio of advanced technologies, instruments, spacecraft and mission concepts for heliophysics and space weather new business opportunities. Under Dr. Duncan's guidance, Ball recently developed concepts and won contracts for NOAA's Space Weather Follow On - Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) spacecraft, NASA's Global Lyman alpha Imager of the Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE) spacecraft and NASA's Solar Cruiser sailcraft.
Dr. Duncan is Ball’s subject matter expert in space weather and heliophysics and an experienced convener, regularly bringing together thought leaders across industry, academia and the government to understand space weather science priorities, operational needs and future plans. Coordinating between multiple communities, Dr. Duncan gathers input to find actionable solutions, and develops and executes strategic plans to meet the needs of next generation space weather architectures. Dr. Duncan is committed to advancing the nation’s space weather preparedness through guiding the development of key technical capabilities for the space weather community. She regularly speaks at industry and academic forums on emerging technologies and their potential for research and operational missions.
Dr. Duncan holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her graduate research included particle energization during solar flares, science operations for NASA’s Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) mission and hardware development for NASA’s Gamma Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS) Antarctic Balloon mission.
SWAG Academic Community Representative
Distinguished Professor
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS
SERVICE
PUBLICATIONS
Professor Gombosi has written two textbooks (Gaskinetic Theory and Physics of the Space Environment, both published by Cambridge University Press), edited four scientific monographs and authored or co-authored nearly 500 peer-reviewed publications. Of these, 9 were published in Science and 9 in Nature. According to the Web of Science his is work has been cited more than ~17,500 times and his h-index is 69, while the Google Scholar values are higher (~26,500 and 84, respectively).
SWAG Academic Community Representative
Research Professor
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
Professor Delores Knipp is a Research Professor at the Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder). She earned a Ph D in Atmospheric and Space Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989. Her career spans more than 30 years as an active-duty Air Force Officer and civilian professor at the US Air Force Academy where she taught physics, meteorology and astronomy, followed by more than a decade of teaching and resesarch CU Boulder. During that time, she wrote the first space weather textbook for upper division undergraduates entitled ‘Understanding Space Weather and the Physics Behind It.’
In 2005-2006 she served on National Space Weather Program Assessment Committee; in 2015-2016 she served on the National Science Foundation Portfolio Review Committee of the Geospace Section, Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. From 2014-2019 Professor Knipp was the Editor in Chief for the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Space Weather Journal. During that time, Prof Knipp delivered the 2017 Coupling Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Prize lecture, Nitric Oxide: How the thermosphere 'fights back' during intense storms. In 2019 she was a member Next Step Space Weather Benchmarks Working Group and co-convened the AGU Chapman Conference on Forecasting Space Weather Including Extremes. Most recently she has served as the 2019-2021 Chair of the Coupling Energetic & Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Science Steering Committee. In 2019 she joined the ranks of Fellows at the American Meteorological Society. Later that year she was awarded the 2019 International Marcel Nicolet Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate and delivered the Michael J. Buonsanto 20th Annual Memorial Lecture at MIT Haystack Observatory.
Prof. Knipp’s research focuses on the space environment and the atmospheric and solar events that disturb it. She works with students to investigate methods for: 1) specifying satellite drag; 2) describing how structures on the Sun produce disturbances in near-Earth space; 3) improving scientific use of space environment measurements from DoD, NASA and international space missions; 4) inter-comparing measurements from research and commercial satellites with an eye toward making broader use of commercial satellite 'housekeeping' data to monitor environmental conditions in near-Earth space; 5) describing the effects of extreme space weather at Earth: and 6) developing educational material related to space weather. She also studies historical space weather events to understand the impacts these events have had on society and the US military. She and her group are also working to prepare historical space weather data sets for Machine Learning extreme-event detection.
SWAG Academic Community Representative
Deputy Director
National Centers for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO
Dr. McIntosh is the Deputy Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. He has over twenty years of experience in solar, space weather and astrophysical research. For five years Scott led the world’s oldest space weather research lab (NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory). As HAO Director Scott instituted a strategic focus on space weather research through a concerted instrumentation and modeling program on both solar and terrestrial elements of the Sun-Earth connection. In this role he sat on the first NASA/NOAA R2O research panel. Scott is a current member of the American Meteorological Society's Space Weather Scientific and Technological Activities Commission and was formerly a member of NOAA SWPC's Space Weather Workshop Steering Committee. In 2016, Scott was the representative of the space weather community on the NOAA review of the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute (CIRES).
He has authored or co-authored over one hundred and fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals, with fifty-two as first author, including twelve high-profile papers in journals like Nature and Science. His current “H-index” of forty-two covers subjects in solar physics, space weather research, atomic physics, and instrument development. Scott is an Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers, specializing in Solar and Stellar Physics, that journal publishes hundreds of articles per year with topical focus editions in space weather. For five years Scott led the world’s oldest space weather research lab (NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory). As HAO Director Scott instituted a strategic focus on space weather research through a concerted instrumentation and modeling program on both solar and terrestrial elements of the Sun-Earth connection.
SWAG Academic Community Representative
Staff Scientist
Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, TX
Dr. Elliott's research focuses on the plasma properties of large-scale solar wind structures and Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections. Her work with ACE, Ulysses, New Horizons, and Polar data has spanned a wide range of topics: solar wind, space weather, interstellar pickup ions, Jupiter's magnetotail, ion outflow in Earth's magnetosphere, comet tails, forecasting geomagnetic indices, and solar wind interaction with Pluto. As an undergraduate, she was a summer student at Arecibo Observatory assisting with ionospheric research, and her Masters work compared simulation results to thermospheric observations. Her Ph.D. dissertation found a strong positive correlation between the amount cold oxygen ion outflow escaping from the ionosphere into the high-altitude polar magnetosphere and the strength of the solar wind dynamic pressure.
SWAG Academic Community Representative
Chief Scientist (Instrumentation)
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Laurel, MD
Dr. George C. Ho is the Chief Scientist (Science Instrumentation) and Heliophysics Strategy Lead at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) Space Exploration Sector. He received his B.S. (Summa Cum Laude) in physics at Augsburg College in 1991, M.S. (1996) and Ph.D. (1998) in physics at University of Maryland College Park. His current research interests include plasma and particle instrumentation, planetary magnetospheric ion, isotopic and elemental composition in both solar and shock associated energetic particle events.
He is the Principal Investigator on the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Solar Orbiter EPD/Suprathermal Ion Spectrograph instrument; Project scientist on NASA’s Lunar Vertex mission; Co-investigator on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe SWEAP investigation; Lead investigator on the Advanced Composition Explorer/ULEIS instrument; Lead Co Investigator on the ESA’s Bepi-Colombo SERENA/Strofio instrument; Co-Investigator and previous Instrument Scientist on the ESA’s JUICE PEP’s Jovian Energetic Electron (JoEE) instrument; Previous Instrument Scientist on the MESSENGER Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer (EPPS).
He has chaired and served in both NSF and NASA review panels, and received multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards for his works on Cassini, Wind, Van Allen Probes, MESSENGER, Juno, MMS and New Horizons investigations. He received an International Academy of Astronautics Laurels for Team Achievement: MESSENGER and a NASA Silver Achievement Award for his work on Parker Solar Probe. He previously served on the NASA Heliophysics Advisory Committee (HPAC) and as one of the study leads on NASA’s Space Weather Science and Observation Gap Analysis. He has published extensively and has over 200 publications.
Designated Federal Officer
NOAA Space Weather Advisory Group
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Email: jennifer.meehan@noaa.gov
Dr. Jennifer “Jinni” Meehan is the National Space Weather Program Manager for the Analyze, Forecast and Support Office at National Weather Service (NWS) headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. Jinni manages one of the 11 service programs of the NWS, space weather, and provides the coordination needed within NOAA and across the Federal government to ensure a Space-Weather-Ready Nation. Jinni works with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center on issues related to global, national, regional, and local policy, products, and services to leverage resources and support forecast consistency. She also leads a service product team that evaluates the field requirements that impact the way NWS communicates space weather information to core partners, the space weather enterprise, and the general public. She serves as a member of several teams, committees, review panels, and interagency technical committees.
Dr. Meehan was recently selected to serve as the Executive Secretary that oversees all activity within the White House Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation (SWORM) Interagency Working Group. She is also helping to lead NOAA’s mandated responsibilities with the 2020 passage of the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act. She was appointed as the Designated Federal Officer of the PROSWIFT Act directed Space Weather Advisory Group.
Prior to joining NOAA NWS, Jinni served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Air Force Institute of Technology located at Wright Patterson, AFB in Dayton, OH that took her to Thule, Greenland to conduct a proof of concept experiment with GPS technology funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Jinni earned her Ph.D. in Physics from Utah State University in 2017 with a focus on alleviating space weather effects on GPS by better characterizing the ionosphere to advance physics-driven, forecast models. She holds a B.S. in Meteorology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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