ACEProjects
The University of Maryland Space Physics Group has sensors aboard thirteen satellites.
For a technical summary of all sensors supported by the group since the 1960's, click here.
For a series of clickable image maps showing the locations of some of these spacecraft, click here.
A satellite comprised of 10 instruments and sensors "to determine and compare the isotopic and elemental composition of several distinct samples of matter, including the solar corona, the interplanetary medium, the local interstellar medium, and Galactic matter." ACE was launched in August 1997 and is currently in orbit around the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrangian point, free from obstruction by the Earth and other satellites.
UMDSP Contact: Glenn Mason (ULEIS); George Gloeckler (SWICS/SWIMS)
"A three-nation, three-spacecraft mission designed to study the sources, transport and acceleration of energetic magnetospheric ions, and to study the interaction between clouds of cool, dense, artificially injected plasma and the hot, magnetized, rapidly flowing natural plasmas of the magnetosphere and solar wind. The three AMPTE spacecraft are the NASA Charge Composition Explorer (CCE), the Federal Republic of Germany's Ion Release Module (IRM), and the United Kingdom Satellite (UKS)." The three components were all launched in August 1984; the mission ended with the failure of the CCE, last of the three, in January 1989.
UMDSP Contact: George Gloeckler
An instrument package "designed to do a detailed study of Saturn, its rings, its magnetosphere, its icy satellites, and Titan." Cassini was launched on October 15, 1997 and arrived at Saturn July 1, 2004.
UMDSP Contact: Doug Hamilton
Part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Program, Geotail "measures global energy flow and transformation in the magnetotail to increase understanding of fundamental magnetospheric processes." Geotail was launched in July 1992.
UMDSP Contact:George Gloeckler; Fred Ipavich
Also known as ISEE-3, ICE was the heliocentric component of a three-satellite mission whose overall purpose was to investigate Sun-Earth interactions. The satellite was renamed ICE during investigation of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985, and investigated Comet Halley in 1986. "The primary scientific objective of ICE was to study the interaction between the solar wind and a cometary atmosphere." ICE was launched in 1978. The ISEE-3 Reboot Project is attempting to recover ISEE-3 in 2014.
UMDSP Contact:
The first Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) mission launched by NASA, IMAGE aims to increase our understanding of "the geospace environment and its response to the solar wind" by imaging that response in three ways: at ultraviolet wavelengths, with radio sounding, and with energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). The varying orbit will allow IMAGE to cover all portions of the magnetosphere, answering questions about the mechanisms by which plasma is injected, transported, energized, and dispersed as the magnetosphere responds to the solar wind and to magnetic storms. IMAGE was launched in March 2000.
UMDSP Contact: Doug Hamilton
IMP-8's primary purpose is "to measure the magnetic fields, plasmas, and energetic charged particles (e.g., cosmic rays) of the Earth's magnetotail and magnetosheath and of the near-Earth solar wind. " Launched in October 1973, IMP-8 continues to provide important data to this day.
UMDSP Contact: Fred Ipavich
A satellite designed to measure "the energy, composition, and charge states of particles" over an energy range of two orders of magnitude. SAMPEX measurements investigate a wide range of topics, including cosmic rays, solar energetic particles, magnetospheric physics, and the magnetosphere-atmosphere link. SAMPEX was launched in July 1992.
UMDSP Contact: Shri Kanekal
One of NASA and ESA's most ambitious collaborations of the 1990s, SOHO "is designed to study the internal structure of the Sun, its extensive outer atmosphere and the origin of the solar wind" from an orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point. This position gives SOHO a view of the Sun uninterrupted by terrestrial eclipses. SOHO was launched in December 1995.
UMDSP Contact: Fred Ipavich
Understanding the origin and evolution of events on the Sun, and their effect on the Sun-Earth connection, requires more than our current two-dimensional measurements of the physical parameters of these events. The instruments aboard the twin STEREO spacecraft have been designed to work in conjunction with existing satellites to add a third dimension to our understanding of solar mechanics. The identical spacecraft, carrying the same instruments, will be placed in heliocentric orbits on either side of the Earth, 20 to 30 degrees from the Sun-Earth line. Measurements from the spacecraft will be combined with those from other satellites, including SoHO, WIND, and Ulysses, as well as with MHD models and ground-based observations, to provide a physical basis for a 3D picture of interplanetary space between the Sun and 1 AU. STEREO is currently in a design phase and has not yet been launched.
Contact: Glenn Mason
A satellite designed "to explore interplanetary space at high solar latitudes. " After its launch in 1990, Ulysses used Jupiter's gravity to achieve a trajectory nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, and now orbits the Sun from pole to pole every six years. "The primary mission of the Ulysses spacecraft is to characterize the heliosphere as a function of solar latitude." It also made measurements of Jupiter's magnetosphere during its flyby in 1992.
UMDSP Contact: George Gloeckler
"The twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched by NASA in separate months in the summer of 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. As originally designed, the Voyagers were to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and the larger moons of the two planets. " Voyager 2 went on to conduct flybys of Uranus and Neptune as well, taking advantage of the rare geometrical configuration of the Solar System at the time. Currently, the two Voyager spacecraft are heading into the outer heliosphere on a 30-year extended mission to study nearby insterstellar space. The objective for the spacecraft today is "to characterize the outer solar system environment and search for the heliopause boundary, the outer limits of the Sun's magnetic field and outward flow of the solar wind. Penetration of the heliopause boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium will allow measurements to be made of the interstellar fields, particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind. "
UMDSP Contact: Doug Hamilton
As part of the ISTP Project, Wind provides "complete plasma, energetic particle, and magnetic field input for magnetospheric and ionospheric studies" and for the investigation of the near-Earth solar wind. It also conducts observations in the ecliptic plane that are used as a baseline for the Ulysses spacecraft. After its launch in 1994, Wind spent several years in geocentric orbits at different radii, conducted several lunar swingbys, paused for several months at the L1 Earth-Sun point, and ranged out of the ecliptic plane in multiple geocentric "petal" orbits. The spacecraft is currently in an elliptical geocentric orbit that passes through the magnetotail and the bow shock.
UMDSP Contact: George Gloeckler (SMS); Glenn Mason (STEP)
