The Wind mission's goals are to study the magnetosphere and ionosphere and investigate basic plasma processes occurring in the near-Earth solar wind. The Wind spacecraft orbits upstream from Earth in the solar wind, which is the flow of electrically charged particles streaming from the surface of the sun. Wind observes the solar wind before it impacts Earth's magnetic field. The spacecraft was launched in 1994.
The science objectives of the WIND mission are:
* Provide conplete plasma, energetic particle, and magnetic field input for magnetospheric and ionospheric studies.
* Determine the magnetospheric output to interplanetary space in the up-stream region
* Investigate basic plasma processes occuring in the near-Earth solar wind
* Provide baseline ecliptic plane observations to be used in heliospheric latitudes from ULYSSES.
Related Publications
2025.
"Solar Eruption Onset and Particle Acceleration in Nested-null Topologies.",
Astrophysical Journal,
994
180
[10.3847/1538-4357/ae0e65]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"Solar Cycle Variation of Sustained Gamma-ray Emission Events from the Sun and Related Energetic Events.",
Book of Proceedings Solar Influences on the Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Atmosphere,
17
24-33
[10.31401/ws.2025.proc.04]
[Proceedings]
2025.
"Magnitude of Short-wavelength Electric Field Fluctuations in Simulations of Collisionless Plasma Shocks.",
The Astrophysical Journal,
992
(104):
11
[10.3847/1538-4357/ae06a9]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"Connecting Solar Orbiter and L1 Measurements of Mesoscale Solar Wind Structures to Their Coronal Source Using the ADAPT-WSA Model.",
The Astrophysical Journal,
990
(2):
97
[10.3847/1538-4357/adec6c]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"The Polytropic Index of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections near L1.",
Astronomy & Astrophysics,
695
(A146):
11
[10.1051/0004-6361/202452984]
[Journal Article/Letter]