  The space physics community continues to grow and become both more
interdisciplinary and more intertwined with commercial and government
operations. This has created a need for a framework to easily identify what
projects can be used for specific applications and how close the tool is to
routine autonomous or on-demand implementation and operation. We propose the
Application Usability Level (AUL) framework and publicizing AULs to help the
community quantify the progress of successful applications, metrics, and
validation efforts. This framework will also aid the scientific community by
supplying the type of information needed to build off of previously published
work and publicizing the applications and requirements needed by the user
communities. In this paper, we define the AUL framework, outline the milestones
required for progression to higher AULs, and provide example projects utilizing
the AUL framework. This work has been completed as part of the activities of
the Assessment of Understanding and Quantifying Progress working group which is
part of the International Forum for Space Weather Capabilities Assessment.
