As ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) turns 30 on Tuesday, a lot has changed in how we understand our Sun and the space weather it creates since the mission’s launch.
When the SOHO mission began on Dec. 2, 1995, space weather — the conditions in space influenced by the Sun that can impact Earth — was a niche subject. But SOHO, designed to observe the Sun 24/7, quickly revolutionized space weather observations and forecasts.
Today, space weather has a much larger effect on our society through its impacts on GPS and communications, which rely on satellites that are more vulnerable to space weather than we are on Earth.
“The SOHO mission is a great example of the incredible partnerships between NASA and ESA,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Congratulations to the NASA and ESA teams on an amazing thirty years working together.”
The mission also provided the motivation for multiple successor spacecraft studying space weather, including the newly launched PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1).
“The SOHO mission has shown us just how connected the Sun and Earth are and the influence the Sun has throughout the entire solar system,” said Nicole Rayl, the Heliophysics Division deputy director in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “In …