Heliophysics Science Division
Division research also encompasses geospace—Earth's uppermost atmosphere, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere—and the changing environmental conditions throughout the coupled heliosphere (solar system weather).
They interpret and evaluate data gathered from instruments, draw comparisons with computer simulations and theoretical models, and publish the results.
The Laboratory designs and implements unique multi-mission and multidisciplinary data services to advance NASA's solar-terrestrial program and our understanding of the Sun-Earth system.
It conducts space-based, ground-based, theoretical, and modeling studies of the chain of events that triggers space-weather effects of interest to NASA, other U.S. government agencies, and the general public.
The Laboratory communicates NASA research results to the scientific community, various space weather interests, and the general public.
Its prime objective is to improve measurements of the composition of diverse samples of matter associated with the Sun, the interstellar medium, and the galaxy surrounding us.
ACE is capable of providing near-real-time solar wind and magnetic field information that aids in forecasting space weather.
Twenty balloons were launched during a January 2013 campaign in Antarctica to study a space weather phenomenon, during which electrons stream down toward the poles from the two Van Allen Belts, which surround Earth.
The IRIS mission will accomplish this by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromosphere and transition region into the corona using spectrometry and imaging.
The unique instrument capabilities, coupled with state of the art 3-D modeling, will fill a large gap in the knowledge of this dynamic region of the solar atmosphere.
The mission will extend the scientific output of existing heliophysics spacecraft that follow the effects of energy release processes from the Sun to Earth.
The mission has provided an unprecedented breadth and depth of information about the Sun, with a unique combination of instruments that study its interior through the hot and dynamic atmosphere to the solar wind and its interaction with the interstellar medium.
STEREO's instruments provide a unique combination of observations to help understand the causes and mechanisms of coronal mass ejections and to characterize how they propagate through the Solar System.
STEREO also helps determine what powers the acceleration of energetic particles from the Sun and provides information on the structure of the solar wind.
[29] THEMIS answers fundamental questions concerning a type of space weather called a substorm that can abruptly and explosively release solar wind energy stored within Earth's magnetotail.
TWINS enables three-dimensional global visualization of this region, leading to greatly enhanced understanding of the connections between different areas of the magnetosphere and their relation to the solar wind.
