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Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
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SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AIMI Science Priority 2. Understand how tropospheric weather influences space weather.
AIMI Science Priority 3. Understand the plasma-neutral coupling processes that give rise to local,
regional, and global-scale structures and dynamics in the AIM system.
These priorities emerge from the five AIMI science goals described in Section 8.4, “Science Goals and
Priorities for the 2013-2022 Decade,” and from the panel’s assessment of the resources required to address
them, and lead to the following imperatives:
AIMI Imperative 1. Close a critical gap in the NASA Heliophysics Systems Observatory with a mission that determines how solar energy drives ionospheric-thermospheric variability and that lays the
foundation for a space weather prediction capability.
AIMI Imperative 2. Provide a broad and robust range of space-based, suborbital, and ground-based
capabilities that enable frequent measurements of the AIM system from a variety of platforms, categories of cost, and levels of risk.
AIMI Imperative 3. Integrate data from a diverse set of observations across a range of scales, coordinated with theory and modeling efforts, to develop a comprehensive understanding of plasma-neutral
coupling processes and the theoretical underpinning for space weather prediction.
AIMI Imperative 4. Conduct a theory and modeling program that incorporates accumulated understanding and extends the legacy of observations into physics-based models that are utilized for new
scientific insight and operational specification and forecast capabilities.
These imperatives represent a balanced strategy for addressing the panel’s priority science; they are not
listed in any particular order. The requirements underlying the imperatives span five categories: spaceflight
missions; Explorers, suborbital, and other platforms; ground-based facilities; theory and modeling; and
enabling capabilities. Priorities within each of these categories are summarized in turn below.
8.1.1 Spaceflight Missions
No new NASA missions are under development or are currently planned for the future that address
any of the AIMI science priorities articulated above. This deficiency represents an acute imbalance in the
study of the Sun-Earth system that impedes researchers’ ability to resolve complex AIM system behavior
that impacts geospace dynamics and the operation of ground- and space-based assets on which society
depends. A critical AIMI imperative therefore is that a mission addressing the response of the ionospherethermosphere (IT) system to variable forcing be put forth as the highest priority of the solar and space
physics decadal survey.
The most compelling AIM science questions of the coming decade are best addressed with a Geospace
Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission nominally consisting of six identical satellites in high-latitude
equally spaced circular orbits, with the goal of understanding how winds, temperature, composition,
chemistry, charged particles, and electric fields interact to regulate the observed global response of the IT.
This mission will also provide new insights into the IT response to dynamical coupling with the lower atmosphere. If this mission must be delayed at all due to budgetary constraints, then a revitalized heliophysics
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
150
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AIMI Science Priority 2. Understand how tropospheric weather influences space weather.
AIMI Science Priority 3. Understand the plasma-neutral coupling processes that give rise to local,
regional, and global-scale structures and dynamics in the AIM system.
These priorities emerge from the five AIMI science goals described in Section 8.4, “Science Goals and
Priorities for the 2013-2022 Decade,” and from the panel’s assessment of the resources required to address
them, and lead to the following imperatives:
AIMI Imperative 1. Close a critical gap in the NASA Heliophysics Systems Observatory with a mission that determines how solar energy drives ionospheric-thermospheric variability and that lays the
foundation for a space weather prediction capability.
AIMI Imperative 2. Provide a broad and robust range of space-based, suborbital, and ground-based
capabilities that enable frequent measurements of the AIM system from a variety of platforms, categories of cost, and levels of risk.
AIMI Imperative 3. Integrate data from a diverse set of observations across a range of scales, coordinated with theory and modeling efforts, to develop a comprehensive understanding of plasma-neutral
coupling processes and the theoretical underpinning for space weather prediction.
AIMI Imperative 4. Conduct a theory and modeling program that incorporates accumulated understanding and extends the legacy of observations into physics-based models that are utilized for new
scientific insight and operational specification and forecast capabilities.
These imperatives represent a balanced strategy for addressing the panel’s priority science; they are not
listed in any particular order. The requirements underlying the imperatives span five categories: spaceflight
missions; Explorers, suborbital, and other platforms; ground-based facilities; theory and modeling; and
enabling capabilities. Priorities within each of these categories are summarized in turn below.
8.1.1 Spaceflight Missions
No new NASA missions are under development or are currently planned for the future that address
any of the AIMI science priorities articulated above. This deficiency represents an acute imbalance in the
study of the Sun-Earth system that impedes researchers’ ability to resolve complex AIM system behavior
that impacts geospace dynamics and the operation of ground- and space-based assets on which society
depends. A critical AIMI imperative therefore is that a mission addressing the response of the ionospherethermosphere (IT) system to variable forcing be put forth as the highest priority of the solar and space
physics decadal survey.
The most compelling AIM science questions of the coming decade are best addressed with a Geospace
Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission nominally consisting of six identical satellites in high-latitude
equally spaced circular orbits, with the goal of understanding how winds, temperature, composition,
chemistry, charged particles, and electric fields interact to regulate the observed global response of the IT.
This mission will also provide new insights into the IT response to dynamical coupling with the lower atmosphere. If this mission must be delayed at all due to budgetary constraints, then a revitalized heliophysics