A

Statement of Task

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shall convene an ad hoc committee to review the responses from NASA’s Heliophysics program and the National Science Foundation to the 2013 decadal survey, “Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society.” The committee’s review will include the following tasks:

1. Describe the most significant scientific discoveries, technical advances, and relevant programmatic changes in solar and space physics over the years since the publication of the decadal survey;
2. Assess the degree to which the Agencies’ programs address the strategies, goals, and priorities outlined in the 2013 decadal survey and other relevant NRC and Academies reports, considering the national policy framework;
3. Assess the progress toward realizing these strategies, goals, and priorities;
4. Recommend any actions that could be taken to optimize the science value of the Agencies’ programs including how to take into account emergent discoveries and potential partnerships since the decadal in the context of current and forecasted resources available to them;
5. Provide guidance about implementation of the recommended portfolio for the remaining years of the current decadal survey given actual funding levels, progress on decadal missions, and science and technology advances, but do not revisit or redefine the scientific priorities or recommended mission science targets;
6. Recommend any actions that should be undertaken to prepare for the next decadal survey—for example: enabling community-based discussions of (a) science goals, (b) potential mission science targets and related implementations, and (c) the state of programmatic balance; as well as identifying the information the survey is likely to need regarding the vitality of the field; and
7. Recommend actions that would enhance all stages of careers for scientists and engineers in the solar and space physics community.