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It rises in the east and
bathes our planet in light. It

powers the machinery of nature,
our weather, encourages and

sustains life on land and at
sea where it warms our oceans

from pole to pole. When it
sets in the west, it reveals to

us its many billions of sibling
stars, populating the night

sky. We study our sun closely,
and like a Rosetta stone, it

can reveal the secrets of all the stars.

You cannot study the sun in isolation.

The influence of its
power throughout the solar

system it created is
persuasive and dominating.

The heliosphere is an immense
magnetic bubble extending

beyond the orbit of Pluto.
It contains the solar wind of

high and low-speed
energetic particles and

plasma that originate
at the surface of the sun.

After traveling for 36 years
and 19 billion kilometers,

the Voyager 1 spacecraft
has reached the edge of this

heliosphere.

Voyager 1 has left the bubble
around the sun and entered

interstellar space, the space
between stars. There it still

senses the shock waves emitted
by the sun, which sound like this.

To understand this source
of power and its influences,

scientists conduct observations
from the ground and in

space, where a flotilla of
satellites trains sophisticated

sensors upon the sun and the
space weather it creates. Space

weather is the field that
studies how what's going on on

the sun affects us here on
the earth in our near space

environment and on the space
environment on other planets.

The effects of space weather
are so complicated because we

have to understand what's
going on at the sun as well as all

that stuff traveling through
interplanetary space, how that

affects and throughout the
heliosphere, that we need

an entire fleet of instruments
to look at these various

effects. It's basically a system
science, so you understand

one part of it in order to
understand the other part of it,

and you have to put
that whole puzzle together

to understand the full
effects of space weather.

GOES-P is an ongoing series
of Earth observation satellites

that happen to keep a constant
eye on the sun, monitoring

this space weather. So the
spacecraft sitting in space, it's

looking down at the earth
and it stays stationary like this,

but this solar array out here
moves and tracks the sun, so

that way it's always looking
at the sun and can take a scan

every minute. The sun's outer
atmosphere is constantly being

heated up by the solar
surface, and this causes particles

from the sun's atmosphere to
stream away constantly. These

streaming particles, which
are filling our entire solar

system, are called the solar
wind. Different phenomenon from

the sun is constantly bombarding
the earth. Although you

might not know it, the solar
weather affects you every day

down here as well, not
only just astronauts, it affects

people on earth. The
latest generation of GOES

satellite is the GOES-R,
soon to be launched into orbit.

Other low-air-forbiting
platforms include ESA's micro

-satellite PROBAT-2, testing
new technology, and PICAR,

sponsored by CNES, the French space agency.

Hinode is the Japanese
word for sunrise. It is a joint

mission between JAXA, NASA
and ESA to study the sun's

magnetic cycles. Its close-up
study has revealed the complex

granular textures of the
sun's surface and insights into

solar flares.

A solar flare is a huge
release of energy that converts

the magnetic energy of
the sun into heat, into light, it

accelerates particles, and
can really heat up the plasma

in order of minutes to over
60 million Kelvin. For a large

eruption, the sun produces
a flash of light, which we call

the solar flare. It also
produces a huge ball of material

traveling away from the sun
we call coronal mass ejection.

And both of those phenomena
can accelerate subatomic

particles, which we call
solar energetic particles.

These three things together
make up a solar storm.

To study the solar wind
phenomenon, a group of satellites

were placed in a unique orbit
between Earth and the sun at

what is called L1, or
Lagrange Point 1, a point of

gravitational balance between
the Earth and the sun. The

Advanced Composition Explorer,
or ACE, observes energetic

solar particles. Wind studies
radio waves and plasma that

occur in the solar wind and
in the astromagnetosphere

and SOHO, the Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory.

Using SOHO and using technique
called helioseismology, very

similar to seismology on the
Earth, we're actually able to

see inside the sun. And so
what we were able to do is see

the layer of the sun just
below the visible surface that we

call the convection zone.
And that's where all sorts of

dynamics are going on. The
inside of the sun is bubbling up

to the surface. And that's
really where all of the solar

phenomena that we see is
first developed. And so we were

able to see underneath the
surface and see these flows of

solar plasma, see the
formation of sunspots. And this is

something that's never been
done before. We're actually able

to see the details inside of a
star. Another high-resolution

space telescope was TRACE.
You're seeing details of the

coronal loops. In the previous
images from other satellites,

it would look like it was just
one big loop. And when you're

actually going to see TRACE,
you can see it's all these

teeny tiny, finely, they
almost look like threads. And

there's these teeny tiny
loops. And they're just breaking

off and reforming and throwing
plasma. Using X-ray and gamma

ray solar flare imaging, RISI
explores the particle physics

behind solar flares. Another
event subjecting the solar

system to bombardment is the
CME, or coronal mass ejection,

event. A coronal mass
ejection, or CME, is an eruption of

plasma from the sun that
shoots out into space. And it could

affect us here at Earth if
that big ball of plasma were to

hit us. NASA's twin stereo
mission has one spacecraft orbit

the sun ahead of the Earth
and the other behind, providing

a stereoscopic view of the
sun to better understand these

coronal mass ejections
and the energetic particles of

plasma. Solar energetic
particles are particles of plasma

that are accelerated at
the flare site from the energy

that's released in the flare.
And these particles can be

accelerated up to almost
80% of the speed of light. And a

coronal mass ejection, when
it's traveling so fast, creates

a shock. And that can create
solar energetic particles. In

2009, NASA commenced a new
scientific program called Living

with a Star.

The crown jewel of this
program is the Solar Dynamics

Observatory, or SDO, the
most advanced spacecraft ever

designed to study the sun
and its dynamic behavior.

The program's goal is
to develop the scientific

understanding necessary to
address those aspects of the sun

that directly affect us here
on Earth. The spacecraft

provides 16-megapixel
ultra-high-definition imagery of the

sun in 13 different wavelengths.
From extreme ultraviolet

frequencies to the helioseismic
and magnetic imager and the

atmospheric imaging assembly,
each wavelength was selected

to highlight a particular part
of the sun's atmosphere. The

results are stunning. They
reveal fine details from the

solar surface to the upper
reaches of the sun's corona.

These solar events dwarf
our planet, and the science has

brought a renewed focus back
to Earth's protective magnetic

field. We are protected here
on the surface of the Earth

from solar flares and coronal
mass ejections when they

impact the Earth due to the
magnetic field of the Earth

called the magnetosphere,
which deflects the magnetic field

and the energetic particles,
as well as the atmosphere,

which absorbs the higher
levels of radiation. Fortunately,

we are protected here at Earth
from flares and coronal mass

ejections by the Earth's outer
atmosphere. It absorbs a lot

of the energy from the
increased light from solar flares,

but we're also protected by
the magnetic field. You know,

the Earth has a north pole and
a south pole. Anyone who has

a compass knows that. But
this magnetic field of the Earth

also protects us from these
charged particles, the plasma,

coming from coronal mass
ejections that largely deflects a

lot of this direct energy. A
coronal mass ejection will

come and affect the Earth's
magnetic field, and changing and

hitting the Earth's magnetic
field causes other changes

on the actual far side away
from the Earth that then

accelerates more particles
and shoots those particles

then into the north and south
pole that produce these very

beautiful waves of green and blue
and red that are just lovely to see.

The sun is powered by a
process called fusion, and that

happens at the very core of
the sun, where it is so intense,

so hot, and so dense that
protons fuse together and create

helium. And this process fuels
the sun and creates energy.

As the energy moves outward,
boosted by magnetic fields,

the temperature drops. Up
until that point, everything makes

sense in that the hottest
part is in the middle and

everything gets gradually
cooler as we move away, but then

something very interesting
starts to happen, which is

that it starts to get hotter
again. This layer, where the

temperature begins to
rise again, is called the

chromosphere. It lies between
the photosphere and the

corona, which is the hottest
part of the sun's atmosphere.

To discover how this corona
is powered, another mission

called IRIS was launched in 2013.

IRIS carries a single
ultraviolet telescope and imaging

spectrograph, whose tight
resolution allows it to see

features as small as 240
kilometers on the sun's surface.

IRIS's first images showed
a multitude of thin, fibril-like

structures that have never
been seen before, revealing

enormous contrasts
in density and

temperature occurring
throughout the region.

The light from the chromosphere
is difficult to interpret

because of the complicated
interaction that the light has

with the matter. It bounces
around, if you will, many times

before its final bounce
towards us. This means that that

interaction between light and
matter needs to be modeled

in great detail. Due to not
just advances in computational

power of computers, but in the
computational techniques that

have been developed by the
IRIS team, we are in a position

to do this. Data collected
from the IRIS spacecraft has

shown that the interface
region of the sun is significantly

more complex than previously
known. Although the corona is

extremely hot, millions of
degrees, it's at a low density,

so it doesn't actually take
a lot of energy to heat it to

that temperature. The
chromosphere, on the other hand, is a

much higher density, albeit
lower temperature, and there's

much more energy deposited
in the chromosphere than in the

corona, so that a tiny
fraction of that energy in the

chromosphere escaping into
the corona is plenty to power all

of the processes that we see,
from heating to such extreme

temperatures to driving the
solar wind that fills the whole

solar system, impacting all
the planets, including our own.

We hope to better understand
these fascinating and important

processes with IRIS.

This energy streaming
from the sun causes other

knock-on effects on the
planets of the solar system.

The northern lights are
particles that are being shot

into the North Pole and the
South Pole that produce these

beautiful greens and blues
and reds. They're not direct

particles from the sun. A
coronal mass ejection will come

and affect the Earth's
magnetic field, and changing and

hitting the Earth's magnetic
field causes other changes on

the actual far side, away
from the Earth, that then

accelerates more particles
and shoots those particles then

into the North and South
Pole that produce these very

beautiful waves of green
and blue and red that are just

lovely to see. Armed with
more questions about the solar

wind and energetic particles,
NASA launched a pair of probes

into Earth orbit. Named
after the famous scientists who

discovered the radiation belts
surrounding our planet, the

Van Allen probes were
dispatched to study the radiation

phenomenon and the magnetic
fields around the Earth in

greater detail. During the
course of geomagnetic activity,

disturbances caused by
flares on the sun, by big blobs of

plasma coming out from
the sun towards the Earth, the

Earth's magnetic field is
battered and shaken. Some of that

energy is captured in the
Earth's magnetic field, and

through a variety of
processes, that energy energizes

particles in the Earth's
radiation belts up to energies

that are hazardous to spacecraft
and astronauts. The two

spacecraft are focused on
the dynamic radiation belts in

the Earth's inner magnetosphere.
They're the only spacecraft

that focus on those.
Consequently, they're a critical

component in the series of
phenomena that link the sun to

the Earth.

Solar flares and CMEs
are all driven by magnetic

reconnection. This is where
the sun turns up the magnetic

field that's inherent in it,
and then it causes oppositely

directed magnetic fields to
then annihilate. But you can't

just get rid of energy, you
have to convert that energy

and transfer that energy into
other things such as plasma

motions, accelerating the
plasma, heating up the plasma,

and also giving out more light.
We are protected here on the

surface of the Earth from
solar flares and coronal mass

ejections when they impact
the Earth due to the magnetic

field of the Earth called the
magnetosphere, which deflects

the magnetic field and the
energetic particles, as well as

the atmosphere, which
absorbs the higher levels of

radiation. But this magnetic
field of the Earth also

protects us from these charged
particles, the plasma coming

from coronal mass ejections
that largely deflects a lot of

this direct energy. The
phenomenon of magnetic reconnection

is not well understood. So
NASA has launched a multi

-satellite mission called MMS
to try to unlock the secrets

of our magnetic field. The
MMS mission is a mission

consisting of four spacecraft
which will fly in close

constellation to measure
a process called magnetic

reconnection. The universe
is full of plasma, and it's full

of magnetic fields, and all
over the place in the universe

you have one plasma colliding
with another. An example of

that is the solar wind coming
in and colliding with Earth's

magnetosphere. And then the
magnetic energy in the plasma,

some fraction of that magnetic
energy is converted very

rapidly into plasma energy.
So you can think of it as

kind of like a magnetic
explosion. And the reason this is

important is because these
explosions drive a lot of the

weather patterns that we see
in the magnetosphere, and so

what space scientists like
to refer to as space weather.

And these space weather
phenomena can have impact on our

everyday lives. It can
actually affect communication

satellites, the power
grid. So we'd really like to

understand how these magnetic
explosions work. We need to

measure reconnection in more
than one location. We need to

measure basically how it
varies in space, how it varies

in all three spatial
dimensions. And that requires a

tetrahedron. The additional
fantastic benefit that that

provides is that it will
actually enable us to recognize

that we are looking with a
reconnecting region much easier

than a single spacecraft.
The ideal situation is that we

would like the four spacecraft
to kind of be surrounding

this region where the
explosion is happening. So the

separation of the spacecraft
is about 10 to 100 kilometers,

which may seem like a long
distance. But in terms of the

magnetosphere, which is
absolutely huge, this is really a

microscopic region that we're
trying to cover. MMS has in a

nutshell two orbital phases
which are designed to study

reconnection. On the day
side, basically you have a

situation where the solar
wind is just constantly running

into Earth's magnetic field.
And this is really great for

MMS because we know that
at some point MMS is going to

encounter this region. And
our hope is that since this

process is always happening,
we're going to get lucky and

actually fly right through
the magnetic explosion as it's

happening. Now on the night
side, the situation is a little

bit different. So what happens
is you have a more gradual

buildup of magnetic
energy in the tail. And these

reconnection processes, these
magnetic explosions, can just

sort of pop off randomly.
We don't really know when it's

going to happen or where
it's going to happen in the tail.

We need to understand both of
those if we want to understand

how the magnetosphere
works. And we believe that both of

those scenarios are also
very important for other

applications, such as on
the Sun, in the solar wind, in

planetary magnetospheres,
and in many astrophysical objects,

as well as in the laboratory.
We hope that it's going to

allow us to improve our models
so that we can put the right

physics in it and actually make
predictions about where and

when reconnection is going
to happen. The magnetic

explosions will help us make
our space weather models more

predictively powerful. The
instruments that are actually

going to be measuring the
particles in space are collecting

them much more rapidly at a
much higher cadence than they

have on previous missions,
about a factor of 100. So whereas

it would take a previous
generation particle instrument

about three or four seconds
to build up a whole picture of

the sky, it's going to take
MMS about 30 milliseconds.

So it really is sort of
game-changing technology.

The current two dozen or
so operating satellites will be

enhanced with new missions
under development. The Japanese

Space Agency will be
launching their next solar physics

satellite, Solar-C. The
Indian Space Agency will be

launching Aditya to study the
Sun's coronal mass ejections

and magnetic field structures.
The Deep Space Climate

Observatory will maintain
real-time solar wind monitoring

capabilities critical to the
accuracy and lead time of space

weather alerts and forecasts.
The European Space Agency's

Solar Orbiter will be launched
in 2018 and fly closer to the

Sun than the planet
Mercury to study how the

Sun creates and
controls its heliosphere.

Also planned for a 2018 launch
is NASA's Solar Probe Plus.

It will approach the Sun more
closely than any other probe

before, just 3.8 million miles
from the surface of the star.

Scientists have long wanted
to send a probe through the

Sun's outer atmosphere. The
spacecraft will be exposed to

temperatures approaching
1,370 degrees Celsius. Together

they will continue to monitor,
study and discover the

secrets of this nuclear anvil
that supplies us with light and life.

Aside from the science, the
images captured reveal to us

the beauty and power of
this, our nearest star in all its

grandeur.

NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, California Institute of

Technology California
Institute of Technology California

Institute

of Technology