Increasing community resilience to the space weather hazard in New Zealand through public engagement and outreach about Solar Tsunamis

New Zealand communities face many different hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, volcanic activity and storms. Another important hazard is space weather, in the form of Geomagnetic Storms, which can cause costly damage to electrical infrastructure and potentially extended blackouts lasting weeks or months, with significant impacts on the population. Raising awareness and increasing understanding of this hazard in the community is important so people can take appropriate action when warnings are given. The Solar Tsunamis research programme has included a range of outreach activities to engage New Zealand communities over the past five years and increase societal resilience to this hazard. Both a school engagement programme and a traveling exhibition were designed by experts at Tūhura Otago Museum, which have visited a range of locations across New Zealand, targeting primary and intermediate students, their families and the general public with evidence-based face-to-face and interactive experiences. Complementing these programmes, an animated planetarium film was developed for screenings in an inflatable dome - Waihiko and the Solar Tsunami. All these activities have integrated Māori concepts and language to connect with New Zealand’s Indigenous communities. Other outreach activities have included public talks and a speaking tour by researchers on the project, an event at Parliament house in Wellington to engage policymakers and other important stakeholders, and resources developed for the project website to provide further narrative-based communications about the scientific background. Evaluating the impacts of such a wide range of activities across these diverse audiences has been a key challenge.