Sun ID: 4822

Heliophysics Sentinels 2020

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on September 15, 2020

There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4898

There have been few changes since the 2018 Heliophysics Fleet. Van Allen Probes and SORCE have been decommissioned, while Solar Orbiter, ICON and SET have been added. As of spring 2020, here's a tour of the NASA Heliophysics fleet from the near-Earth satellites out to the Voyagers beyond the heliopause.

Excepting the Voyager missions, the satellite orbits are color coded for their observing program:

Magenta: TIM (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere) observations

Yellow: solar observations and imagery

Cyan: Geospace and magnetosphere

Violet: Heliospheric observations

Near-Earth Fleet:

Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays. SVS page
TIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of Earth's atmosphere. SVS page
ICON: Works with GOLD on studies of the ionosphere.
AIM: Images and measures noctilucent clouds. SVS page
IRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph is designed to take high-resolution spectra and images of the region between the solar photosphere and solar atmosphere. SVS page
SET: Space Environment Testbed exploring radiation-hardening technologies

Geosynchronous Fleet:

SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps the Sun under continuous observation at 16 megapixel resolution. SVS page
GOLD: Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk is a spectroscopic imager for studying the ionosphere.

Geospace Fleet:

Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail. SVS page
Magnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS): This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time. SVS page
THEMIS: This is a fleet of three satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. Two of the original five satellites were moved into lunar orbit to become THEMIS-ARTEMIS. SVS page
IBEX: The Interstellar Boundary Explorer measures the flux of neutral atoms from the heliopause. SVS page

Lunar Orbiting Fleet:

THEMIS-ARTEMIS: Two of the THEMIS satellites were moved into lunar orbit to study the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the Moon. SVS page

Sun-Earth Lagrange Point One Fleet:

The L1 point is a Lagrange Point between the Sun and the Earth. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.

SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments. SVS page
ACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind. SVS page
Wind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind. SVS page

Solar Orbiting Fleet:

STEREO-A: The remaining STEREO spaceraft orbits the Sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. SVS page
Parker Solar Probe: On an orbit that takes it closer to the Sun than any other mission. SVS page
Solar Orbiter: On an orbit that takes it to high solar latitudes. SVS page

Interstellar Fleet:

Voyager 1 & Voyager 2: The two Voyager spaceraft orbit originally performed flybys of the outer planets of the solar system but continued to operate. They are now the most distant monitors of the plasma in the space between the stars. At the time of this visualization, Voyager 2 has just crossed the heliopause.SVS page

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Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio