From the International
Space Station’s orbit 269 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia,
this nighttime photograph captures the aurora australis, or "southern
lights." Russia's Soyuz MS-12 crew ship is in the foreground and Progress
72 resupply ship in the background.
Credits: NASA
NASA has approved two heliophysics missions to explore the Sun and the
system that drives space weather near Earth. Together, NASA’s contribution to
the Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon
Mission, or EUVST, and the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, or EZIE, will
help us understand the Sun and Earth as an interconnected system.
Understanding the physics that drive the solar wind and solar explosions –
including solar flares and coronal mass ejections – could one day help
scientists predict these events, which can impact human technology and
explorers in space.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) leads the Extreme Ultraviolet
High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST) Epsilon Mission (Solar-C EUVST Mission), along with other
international partners. Targeted for launch in 2026, EUVST is a solar telescope
that will study how the solar atmosphere releases solar wind and drives
eruptions of solar material. These phenomena propagate out from the Sun and
influence the space radiation environment throughout the solar system. NASA’s
hardware contributions to the mission include an intensified UV detector and
support electronics, spectrograph components, a guide telescope, software, and
a slit-jaw imaging system to provide context for the spectrographic
measurement. The budget for NASA contributions to EUVST is $55 million. The
principal investigator for the NASA contribution to EUVST is Harry Warren at
the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.
The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) will study electric currents
in Earth’s atmosphere linking aurora to the Earth’s magnetosphere – one piece
of Earth’s complicated space weather system, which responds to solar activity
and other factors. The Auroral Electrojet (AE) index is a common measure of
geomagnetic activity levels, even though the details of the structure of these
currents is not understood. EZIE will launch no earlier than June 2024. The
total budget for the EZIE mission is $53.3 million. The principal investigator
for the mission is Jeng-Hwa (Sam) Yee at the Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
“We are very pleased to add these new missions to the growing fleet of
satellites that are studying our Sun-Earth system using an amazing array of
unprecedented observational tools,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate
administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “In addition to
my enthusiasm at selecting a pioneering multi-point observatory focused on the
auroral electrojets, I am particularly excited to follow up the success of the
Yohkoh and Hinode solar science missions with another international
collaboration with JAXA and other European partners on EUVST.”
The EUVST mission addresses the recommendations of a July 2017 final report delivered by the
multi-agency Next Generation Solar Physics Mission Science Objectives Team.
EUVST will take comprehensive UV spectroscopy measurements of the solar
atmosphere at the highest level of detail to date, which will allow scientists
to tease out how different magnetic and plasma processes drive coronal heating
and energy release.
“We’re excited to work with our international partners to answer some of
our fundamental questions about the Sun,” said Nicky Fox, Heliophysics Division
director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “EUVST’s observations will
complement our current missions to give us new insight into our star.”
EZIE is an investigation comprising a trio of CubeSats that will study the
source of and changes in the auroral electrojet, an electric current circling
through Earth’s atmosphere around 60-90 miles above the surface and extending
into the Earth’s magnetosphere. The interaction of the magnetosphere and the
solar wind compresses the Sun-facing side of the magnetosphere and drags out
the night-time side of the magnetosphere into what is called a “magnetotail.”
Auroral electrojets are generated by changes in the structure of the
magnetotail. The same space weather phenomena that power the beautiful aurora
can cause interference with radio and communication signals and utility grids
on Earth’s surface, and damage to spacecraft in orbit.
“With these new missions, we’re expanding how we study the Sun, space, and
Earth as an interconnected system,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the
Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “EZIE’s use of
instrument technology proven on Earth science CubeSat missions is just one
example of how science and technology development at NASA go hand in hand
across disciplines.”
Funding for these missions of opportunity comes from the Heliophysics
Explorers Program, managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
For more information about NASA’s Heliophysics Division, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/sunearth
For more information about Heliophysics missions of opportunity, visit: https://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions.html
Source: NASA
Approves Heliophysics Missions to Explore Sun, Aurora | NASA
