NASA Logo in the header
Heliophysics Science Division
Operational

Wind

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.

Launch Date
--
Class
Flight Project
Websites
Key Staff

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

2026. "In Situ and Near-Sun Properties of Coronal Mass Ejections for Two Different Types of Events: From Active Regions versus from Quiescent Regions.", The Astrophysical Journal, 1008 (1): 44 [10.3847/1538-4357/ae8d03] [Journal Article/Letter]

2026. "Energy Partition at a Collisionless Supercritical Quasi‐Parallel Shock.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 131 (3): e2025JA034718 [10.1029/2025ja034718] [Journal Article/Letter]

2026. "Transport of Electrons in Tangled Magnetic Fields.", Space Science Reviews, 222 (4): 51 [10.1007/s11214-026-01303-9] [Journal Article/Letter]

2026. "MMS Insights into Coronal Mass Ejection–driven Sub-Alfvénic Solar Wind at 1 au.", The Astrophysical Journal, 1003 (2): 169 [10.3847/1538-4357/ae5f72] [Journal Article/Letter]

2026. "Electron Velocity Moments in the Solar Wind. II. Statistical Properties.", The Astrophysical Journal, 1002 (2): 122 [10.3847/1538-4357/ae5d4a] [Journal Article/Letter]