This object reports the current perceived severity of an alarm per ITU X.733, ranging from indeterminate through critical, major, minor, warning, to cleared, and the MIB notes that raising an existing alarm's severity clears its alarmAckUser and alarmAckTime fields. An admin watches this field to know when a previously acknowledged alarm needs re-acknowledgment because conditions have worsened. For example, an alarm that escalates from minor(3) to critical(1) will have its acknowledgment wiped, forcing the operator to re-acknowledge it.