The 2015 heliophysics senior review panel undertook a review of 15 missions currently in operation in april 2015. The panel found that all the missions continue to produce science that is highly…

This is a $6,053,252.11 grant award from NASA to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to support the Heliophysics Senior Review Panel's review of 15 ongoing NASA heliophysics missions. The review found that the missions collectively contribute to NASA's heliophysics objectives, including understanding the flow of energy and matter in the solar system, exploring fundamental physical processes of space plasma systems, and defining the origins and societal impacts of variability in the Earth-Sun system. While the review noted some issues with data access, archiving, and mission funding, it concluded that the missions represent an excellent public investment and are needed to study the connected Sun-heliosphere-planetary environment system. This award does not have a set-aside designation. As a leading research university and major NASA contractor, Caltech conducts a wide range of scientific and engineering research for federal agencies.

The 2015 heliophysics senior review panel undertook a review of 15 missions currently in operation in april 2015. The panel found that all the missions continue to produce science that is highly valuable to the scientific community and that they are an excellent investment by the public that funds them. At the top level, the panel finds: NASA s heliophysics division has an excellent fleet of spacecraft to study the sun, heliosphere, geospace, and the interaction between the solar system and interstellar space as a connected system. The extended missions collectively contribute to all three of the overarching objectives of the heliophysics division. O understand the changing flow of energy and matter throughout the sun, heliosphere, and planetary environments. O explore the fundamental physical processes of space plasma systems. O define the origins and societal impacts of variability in the earth/sun system. All the missions reviewed here are needed in order to study this connected system. Progress in the collection of high quality data and in the application of these data to computer models to better understand the physics has been exceptional. The funds invested in the mission operation & data analysis (MO & DA) budget are providing an excellent return in terms of our better understanding the geospace environment in which our technological society functions. The review noted a few serious problems within the portfolio. For various reasons some of the missions are not being funded at an adequate level (the total MO & DA budget is unfortunately low, such that there is not enough money to do the science proposed). For the voyager mission, there are multiple problems regarding data access and archival storage that need to be addressed. In addition, the performance of the magnetometer team is seriously deficient. The SDO mission has financial and management problems that need to be addressed at the NASA HQ level.