The Solar Isotope Spectrometer provides isotopically resolved measurements of the elements from lithium to zinc over the energy range 10 - 100 MeV/nucleon. The SIS dectector system consists of two identical telescopes composed of stacks of large-area solid-state detectors.
The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) studies energetic particles from the sun as well as sources within and outside our galaxy. ACE observations contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system as well as the astrophysical processes involved. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provided detectors and telescopes for several of ACE's instruments. The mission launched in 1997.
Balloon-borne Investigation of Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the corona
(BITSE)
A collaboration between NASA and KASI, BITSE demonstrates a new way to study the solar wind. While standard coronagraphs capture the corona’s density, BITSE also measures the temperature and speed of electrons in the solar wind to help understand the powerful forces that accelerate them to speeds of 1 million miles per hour. BITSE’s balloon flight is a key step in the testing and development of this instrument, and will help the team of scientists and engineers fine-tune their technology for future spaceflight.
CINDI involves two instruments on the C/NOFS satellite that measure the concentration and kinetic energy of the ions and neutral particles in space as the satellite passes through them. This information will be used in building models to understand the various structures in the ionosphere, such as plasma depletions and associated turbulence in the nightside, low-latitude ionosphere. These structures can interfere with radio signals between Earth and spacecraft in orbit, thus causing errors in tracking and loss of communication.
VEFI measures direct current (DC) electric fields, which cause the bulk plasma motion that drives the ionospheric plasma to be unstable. Additionally, it measures the quasi-DC electric fields within the plasma density depletions to reveal the motions of the depletions relative to the background ionosphere. VEFI also measures the vector AC electric field, which characterizes the ionospheric disturbances associated with spread-F irregularities.
The Dual Technique Magnetometer (MAG), instruments onboard the Cassini spacecraft, is a Direct Sensing Instrument that measures the strength and direction of the magnetic field around Saturn.
The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) measures the energy and electrical charge of particles such as electrons and protons that the instrument encounters.
The NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Cluster mission was the first to deploy four identical spacecraft flying in formation to conduct three-dimensional studies of the interaction between Earth's magnetosphere and the "solar wind" of charged particles streaming off the sun. Science output from Cluster greatly advances our knowledge of space plasma physics, space weather, and the sun-Earth connection, and has been key in improving the modeling of the magnetosphere and understanding its various physical processes. The quartet of spacecraft went into orbit in two launches, in July and August 2000.
A Plasma Electron And Current Experiment instrument can measure the three dimensional velocity distribution of electrons in a space plasma, for an energy range from a few electronvolts to about 30 kiloelectronvolts. A PEACE instrument is flying on each of the four Cluster II spacecraft, which were launched in the summer of 2000.
The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is a multi-agency partnership to enable, support, and perform the research and development for next-generation space science and space weather computer models. The CCMC partners include NASA; the National Science Foundation; the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center; the Office of Naval Research; and the Air Force Materiel Command, Office of Scientific Research, Research Laboratory, and Weather Agency.
CeREs, the Compact Radiation belt Explorer, is a 3U CubeSat, whose primary science goal is to study electron microbursts to further our understanding of electron loss from the radiation belts.
The CuPID (Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector) Cubesat Observatory is designed to test competing models of solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. The 6U spacecraft is roughly the size of a toaster oven and will carry a wide field-of-view soft X-ray telescope, the first of its kind to be placed into orbit. In orbit the spacecraft will measure soft X-rays emitted from the process of charge-exchange when plasma from the solar wind collides with neutral atoms in the Earth’s distant atmosphere. The spatial and temporal patterns of X-ray images will be used to address scientific questions. The project is a collaboration between Boston University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Johns Hopkins University, Merrimack College, Aerospace Corporation, Drexel University, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
DSCOVR, formerly called Triana, is the first Earth-observing satellite in an Lagrange-1 or L1 orbit. It supports a number of scientific instruments, including EPIC and NISTAR. EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) is a 10-channel sepctroradiometer that provides daily 13 (in winter) or 22 (in summer) 10 narrow band spectral images of the entire sunlit face of Earth.
The Extreme Ultraviolet Normal Incidence Spectrograph (EUNIS) sounding rocket instrument is an extreme ultraviolet solar spectrometer with high efficiency and high spectral resolution.
The Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) mission has helped scientists answer fundamental questions about the causes and makeup of the aurora. FAST's primary objective was to study the microphysics of space plasma and the accelerated particles that cause the aurora. FAST's highly elliptical orbit enabled the spacecraft to cross over the auroral zones at Earth's poles four times each orbit. The spacecraft collected high-resolution data ("snapshots") only while in those auroral zones. It also ventured high into the charged particle environment of the aurora to measure the electric and magnetic fields, plasma waves, energetic electrons and ions, ion mass composition, and thermal plasma density and temperature. The FAST mission was launched in 1996.
Firefly will determine the source of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), and will determine the extent to which TGFs are associated with energetic electrons that can escape the atmosphere to populate the inner radiation belt.
The Geotail mission was a collaboration between NASA and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan. Its primary objective was to study the dynamics of Earth's magnetotail over a wide range of distances, extending from the near-Earth region to as far as about 200 Earth radii from the planet.
With an elongated orbit, Geotail sailed through the invisible boundaries of the magnetosphere, gathering data on the physical process at play there to help understand how the flow of energy and particles from the Sun reach Earth. Geotail made many scientific breakthroughs, including helping scientists understand how quickly material from the Sun passes into the magnetosphere, the physical processes at play at the magnetosphere’s boundary, and identifying oxygen, silicon, sodium, and aluminum in the lunar atmosphere.
The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission of opportunity is an imaging instrument that is on a commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit to image the Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere. GOLD was launched in January 2018.
Hinode, formerly known as Solar-B, is a satellite equipped with three advanced solar telescopes to explore the magnetic fields of the sun. The spacecraft's solar optical telescope (SOT), X-ray telescope, and EUV imaging spectrometer were designed to study the heating mechanism and dynamics of the extended solar atmosphere (corona). The observations will improve understanding of the mechanisms that power the corona and drive solar eruptions. Hinode was launched in 2006.
EIS will provide monochromatic images of the transition region and corona at high cadence using a slot. High spectral resolution images can be obtained by rastering with a slit.
LENA's instrument studied a particular particle population known as ionospheric outflow. These charged particles are confined and guided by magnetic field lines.
IMAGE was the first satellite mission dedicated to imaging the Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space controlled by the Earth's magnetic field and containing extremely tenuous plasmas of both solar and terrestrial origin. Contact with IMAGE was lost in 2005 but rediscovered in 2018. Scientists and engineers at NASA are working to revive the mission.
