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Facility/Spacecraft
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Mission Type
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Products
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ACE
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NASA Explorer in halo orbit at L1, launched on August 25, 1997
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Real-time monitoring of the composition, density, velocity, temperature, and magnetic fields of the solar wind
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CGRO
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NASA Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
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Monitoring of the highest-energy emissions from the Sun
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Flare Genesis
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NASA balloon program
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Solar vector magnetogram
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GOES
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NOAA satellite in geosynchronous orbit that carries geospace and Earth-monitoring (primarily weather-related) instrumentation
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Carries solar x-ray flux monitors that warn of flares; also carries instruments for in situ particle and magnetic field measurements; GOES-M will include a solar x-ray imager that will take real-time images of solar activity every minute
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GONG
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Worldwide network of ground-based helioseismology observatories run by the National Solar Observatory
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Structure and dynamics of the solar interior
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HESSIa
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NASA SMEX planned for mid-2000 launch
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Simultaneous, high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy of solar flares from 3-keV x-rays to 20-MeV gamma rays with high time resolution to expslore during solar maximum the basic physics of particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares
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IMP-8
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NASA Interplanetary Monitoring Platform mission launched in 1973
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Nearly continuous density, velocity, temperature, energetic particle, and magnetic field data on the solar wind and the magnetospheric response to it in a high (30 RE [Earth radius]) near-equatorial orbit. Plasma, magnetic field, and energetic particle data from a near-circular 35 RE, 12-day orbit. Approximately two-thirds of each orbit is in the solar wind. Annual data coverage in the 70% range in recent years; increased coverage in 1998 anticipated
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SEON
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NOAA and USAF network of ground-based optical and radio observatories
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Continuous solar optical and radio observations
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SOHO
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NASA/ESA mission launched in 1995
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Structure of the solar interior, the surface magnetic fields, the inner corona, CMEs, and the solar wind
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a Nasa's selection of HESSI for its Small Explorer line occurred after completion of the final draft of this report; therefore, this mission is not discussed in the text. In a brief report published in January 1997 (Space Studies Board, National Research Council, An Assessment of the Solar and Space Physics Aspects of NASA's Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.), the committees recommended that NASA develop a strategy to launch HESSI in time for the upcomming solar maximum.
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