NASA Announces Funding for Space Weather System Study

WASHINGTON- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected three proposals to study the complex system of space weather that surrounds our planet and its relationship with the Earth’s atmosphere.

The three concepts propose how to implement the Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (DYNAMIC) mission, recommended in the 2013 Decadal Survey of Solar and Space Physics. The DYNAMIC mission is designed to study how changes in the Earth’s lower atmosphere affect our planet’s upper atmosphere, where space weather such as auroras and satellite disturbances manifest. This knowledge will benefit humanity by helping us understand how space weather can affect critical technologies such as navigation systems and satellites.

“Earth and space are an interconnected system that reaches from the heart of our solar system, the Sun, to the lowest levels of the atmosphere where we live, and extends to the edge of our heliosphere – the boundary of interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, deputy director of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “While space weather can ignite the beautiful auroras in our skies, it can also cause disruptions for us here on Earth and be dangerous to our spacecraft and astronauts in space. The DYNAMIC mission will advance our understanding of how Earth itself shapes space weather events that affect our home planet.”

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The DYNAMIC mission is designed to take measurements in Earth’s upper atmosphere at altitudes of 80 to 200 kilometers. With multiple spacecraft, DYNAMIC’s simultaneous observations from different locations can give scientists a more complete picture of how waves propagate upward in this part of the atmosphere.

NASA has allocated funding in fiscal year 2023 to initiate this first phase of studies. As the first step of a two-stage selection process, each proposal will receive $2 million for a concept study. NASA has solicited missions with a cost cap of $250 million, not including launch. The studies will last nine months.

The selected concept teams include:

University of Colorado, Boulderunder the direction of research director Tomoko Matsuo
Key partners include the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Westford, Massachusetts.

University of Colorado, Boulderunder the direction of Aimee Merkel
Key partners include BAE Systems in Westminster, Colorado, and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityled by Research Director Scott Bailey
Key partners include the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences in Newport News, Virginia, and Computational Physics, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado.