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Heliophysics Science Division - NASA's GSFC

Introduction to HSD

This is the home page for NASA's Heliphysics Science Division (HSD). The Division is located at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD, USA. It is a component of Goddard's Sciences and Exploration Directorate.

The Heliophysics Science Division (HSD) provides scientific leadership and expertise necessary to achieve NASA’s strategic science goals in solar physics, heliospheric physics, geospace physics and space weather. It leads the definition and development of missions in support of these goals and performs fundamental research into solar structure and magnetic activity, the origins and acceleration of the solar wind, the effects of solar outbursts on the heliosphere, the response of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system at the Earth and other planets to solar variability including solar irradiance. HSD’s scientists develop coupled models of the sun and its corona, the heliosphere, geospace, and the high altitude environments of all of the planets, and they propose, develop and fly state-of-the-art instrumentation for photon and neutral atom imaging, electric and magnetic field mapping, and plasma and energetic charged particle measurements. HSD also designs and implements unique data systems that manage a wide range of solar-terrestrial data and enable rapid access and analysis across mission and discipline boundaries for the United States space science community. The scientists in the HSD interpret and evaluate data gathered from its instruments, draw comparisons with computer simulations and theoretical models, and publish the results. HSD’s education and outreach activities communicate the excitement and societal relevance of NASA’s operating and future Heliophysics missions.

Read more about the HSD.

The Division's Four Laboratories are:

Solar Physics Laboratory
(671)
Leads in the exploration and understanding of the Sun as a star and the complex dynamics of the solar corona. Also develops new instruments and mission concepts, theoretical models, and innovative techniques to access and analyze data.
Heliospheric Physics Laboratory (672)
Leads in the exploration of the heliosphere through the development of instruments and models designed to determine the origin and evolution of the solar wind, low energy cosmic rays, and the interaction of the Sun’s heliosphere with the local interstellar medium.
Geospace Physics Laboratory
(673)
Advances knowledge of the coupled solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere system. Leads in the development and implementation of plasma analyzers and low energy neutral atom imagers as well Geospace theory and modeling.
Space Weather Laboratory
(674)
Performs fundamental research and modeling of the coupled Sun-Earth system. Undertakes spaceflight-based, ground-based, and theoretical and modeling studies of the space weather effects important to NASA and the nation.
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