How does solar variability affect human society, technological systems and the habitability of planets? Missions

Geomagnetic storms (magnetic storms on Earth due to solar activity) produce the awe-inspiring Aurora borealis and Aurora australis -- the Northern and Southern lights. However, they can also cause a variety of highly undesirable consequences. Electrical current surges in power lines, interference in the broadcast of radio, television, and telephone signals, and problems with defense communications are all associated with magnetic storms.

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Launch Date	A-Z	Phase
20070426 April 25, 2007	AIM Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)  is a mission to determine the causes of the highest altitude clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. The number of clouds in the middle...	Operating
20121201 2012	BARREL 1 The Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses mission is a balloon-based Mission of Opportunity to augment the measurements of NASA's RBSP spacecraft....	Development
20080416 20:00:00 USEastern April 16, 2008	CINDI/CNOFS The Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigations (CINDI) is a mission to understand the dynamics of the Earth's ionosphere. CINDI will provide two instruments for the...	Operating
20000717 July 16, 2000	Cluster-II Cluster is a European Space Agency program with major NASA involvement. The 4 Cluster spacecraft are providing a detailed three-dimensional map of the magnetosphere, with...	Operating
19960822 August 21, 1996	FAST Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) studies the detailed plasma physics of the Earth's auroral regions. Ground support campaigns coordinate satellite measurements with...	Operating
20111001 TBD	RBSP The RBSP mission will provide scientific understanding, ideally to the point of predictability, of how populations of relativistic electrons and ions in space form and change...	Development
19920724 July 24, 1992	Geotail The GEOTAIL mission is a collaborative project undertaken by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and NASA. Its primary objective is to study the...	Operating
20060924 September 23, 2006	Hinode (Solar-B) Hinode (formerly known as Solar-B) is a Japanese ISAS mission proposed as a follow-on to the highly successful Japan/US/UK Yohkoh (Solar-A) collaboration. The mission...	Operating
20080716 July 15, 2008	IBEX IBEX will be the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between...	Development
19731026 October 26, 1973	IMP-8 IMP 8 has deepened understanding of the space environment near Earth in many ways. Observations from IMP 8 provided insight into plasma physics, the Earth's magnetic field,...	Past
20141101 2014	MMS The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will determine the small-scale basic plasma processes which transport, accelerate and energize plasmas in thin boundary and current...	Development
19960225 February 24, 1996	Polar Polar is the second of two NASA spacecraft in the Global Geospace Science (GGS) initiative and part of the ISTP Project. GGS is designed to improve greatly the understanding...	Past
20020202 February 02, 2002	RHESSI Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI)  studies solar flares in X-rays and gamma-rays. It explores the basic physics of particle acceleration and...	Operating
20081202 December 01, 2008	SDO Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the first satellite mission in NASA's Living With a Star Program, is a solar observatory whose primary goals are to understand the solar...	Development
20180101 TBD	Sentinels The primary scientific objective of the Sentinels is to discover, understand, and model the connection between solar phenomena and interplanetary disturbances, particularly...	Under Study
19951203 December 02, 1995	SoHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)  is a solar observatory studying the structure, chemical composition, and dynamics of the solar interior. SOHO a joint venture of...	Operating
20150101 TBD	Solar Probe Plus Solar Probe Plus will be a historic mission, flying into one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system, the Sun’s atmosphere or corona, for the first time. This...	Under Study
20070218 February 17, 2007	THEMIS Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS)  is a study of the onset of magnetic storms within the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere....	Operating
20011208 December 07, 2001	TIMED Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) explores the energy transfer into and out of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI)...	Operating
19980402 April 01, 1998	TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observes the effects of the emergence of magnetic flux from deep inside the Sun to the outer corona with high spatial and...	Operating
19901007 October 06, 1990	Ulysses The Ulysses Mission is the first spacecraft to explore interplanetary space at high solar latitudes, orbiting the Sun nearly perpendicular to the plane in which the planets...	Operating
19941102 November 01, 1994	Wind Wind studies the solar wind and its impact on the near-Earth environment. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Research...	Operating

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How does solar variability affect human society, technological systems and the habitability of planets? Missions