SEC MISSIONS
SUN-EARTH CONNECTION CURRENT MISSIONS
- Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)
- A major mission of the Explorer program, ACE samples particles in space from the sun, the galaxy, and everywhere in-between.
- Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)
- This satellite studies why polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) form and why they vary.
- Cluster ESA/NASA Mission
- The four Cluster spacecraft carry out 3D measurements in the Earth's Magnetosphere.
- Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST)
- FAST, the second mission in NASA's Small Explorer Satellite Program (SMEX), is a satellite designed to study Earth's aurora.
- Polar Mission
- The Polar Mission is to obtain data from both high- and low-altitude perspectives of the polar region of geospace.
- Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)
- RHESSI's primary mission is to explore the basic physics of particle acceleration and explosive energy release in solar flares.
- Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
- SOHO is designed to study the internal structure of the Sun, its extensive outer atmosphere and the origin of the solar wind.
- Hinode
- Hinode (formerly known as Solar-B) is a Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) mission proposed as a follow-on to the highly successful Japan/US/UK Yohkoh (Solar-A) collaboration. The mission consists of a coordinated set of optical, EUV and X-ray instruments that will investigate the interaction between the Sun's magnetic field and its corona.
- Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)
- A 2-year mission employing two nearly identical observatories to provide 3-D measurements of the Sun to study the nature of coronal mass ejections.
- Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS)
- THEMIS answers fundamental outstanding questions regarding the magnetospheric substorm instability, a dominant mechanism of transport and explosive release of solar wind energy within Geospace.
- Thermospere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Mission (TIMED)
- The TIMED mission is studying the influences of the Sun and humans on the least explored region of Earth's atmosphere.
- Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Mission
- Insert some information about the mission here. Hopefully we will have mission bio pages for all missions by the end.
- Ulysses Mission
- A mission to study the Sun at all latitudes.
- Voyager - The Interstellar Mission
- Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 journey to study the region in space where the Sun's influence ends and the dark recesses of interstellar space begin.
- Wind Mission
- A mission to investigate the solar wind and its impact on the near-Earth environment.
- Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS)
- The Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) mission provides a new capability for stereoscopically imaging the magnetosphere.
SUN-EARTH CONNECTION MISSIONS IN DEVELOPMENT
- Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamics Investigation (CINDI)
- This mission will provide measurements of the neutral atmosphere wind velocity and the charged particle drifts in the equatorial upper atmosphere at altitudes from 400 to 700 km.
- Intersteller Boundary Explorer (IBEX)
- IBEX will discover the global interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium.
- Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)
- A Solar-Terrestrial Probe mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence.
- Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)
- The LWS Geospace Missions will launch two spacecraft, the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, to quantify the source, loss, and transport processes that generate the radiation belts and cause them to decay. RBSP is s one of two missions for Geospace Missions (RBSP and ITSP).
- Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
- The first Space Weather Research Network mission in the Living With a Star (LWS) Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).