THE ABILITY TO PROTECT FROM AND MITIGATE THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF SPACE WEATHER RELIES CRITICALLY ON OUR ABILITY TO IMPROVE THE FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF SPACE WEATHER AND INCREASE THE ACCURACY RELIABILITY AND TIMELINESS OF SPACE-WEATHER. THE UNDERPINNING OF SCIENCE AND OBSERVATIONS WILL HELP DRIVE ADVANCES IN MODELING CAPABILITY AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF SPACE-WEATHER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. (NATIONAL SPACE WEATHER STRATEGY TECHNICAL REPORT NSTC 2015) COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF SPACE WEATHER PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN ANY SPACE WEATHER STRATEGY (BE IT NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL). THE ACCURACY RELIABILITY AND FIDELITY OF SUCH SIMULATIONS DEPENDS IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS ON FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF PLASMA PROCESSES MEDIATING THE DYNAMICS OF SPACE WEATHER ON THE AVAILABILITY OF COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS THAT HAVE BEEN VALIDATED CAREFULLY BY COMPARISON WITH WELL-DIAGNOSED EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS AND ON THE ACCESS OF THE USER COMMUNITY TO COMPUTER HARDWARE OF VARIOUS DEGREES OF POWER AND SOPHISTICATION. THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH PROGRAM IS THE INTEGRATION OF EXTENDED MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS (XMHD) AND KINETIC EFFECTS IN GLOBAL MODELS. MOST MAGNETOSPHERES IN THE HELIOSPHERE BE THEY ATTACHED TO EARTH OR OTHER PLANETARY SYSTEMS ARE PERMEATED WITH WEAKLY COLLISIONAL OR COLLISIONLESS PLASMAS FOR WHICH TRADITIONAL MHD MODELS TEND TO BREAK DOWN. OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS THROUGH A COMBINATION OF THEORY SIMULATION AND OBSERVATIONAL VALIDATION WE HAVE DEVELOPED A NEW SIMULATION CODE CALLED GKEYLL AND A NEW VERSION OF A WELLKNOWN EXISTING GLOBAL MAGNETOSPHERE CODE CALLED OPENGGCM (NEXT GENERATION) WHICH INCLUDE IMPORTANT KINETIC EFFECTS. OVER THE NEXT YEAR WE PLAN TO ENHANCE THE USER INTERFACES AND THEIR ROBUSTNESS OF BOTH OF THESE CODES SO THAT THEY CAN BE USED MORE BROADLY AND EFFECTIVELY BY THE HELIOPHYSICS COMMUNITY. WE ALSO PROPOSE TO THOROUGHLY EXPLORE OUR CROSS-COMPARISON STUDIES FOR SMALL-SCALE MAGNETOSPHERES (SPECIFICALLY GANYMEDE AND MERCURY) COMPARING FULLY KINETIC SIMULATIONS (USING VPIC) WITH HYBRID (USING H3D) AND GKEYLL. VALIDATION STUDIES WITH MMS OBSERVATIONS OF THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE IN THE DAYSIDE AS WELL AS THE MAGNETOTAIL WILL BE CARRIED OUT.