The wind spacecraft has been providing invaluable solar wind measurements for 30 years, still providing some of the most unique and reliable measurements to date. The SMS instrument suite contains two…

The Regents of the University of Michigan has been awarded a $490,256 research grant by a civilian federal agency (Shared Services Center) to continue development of advanced data products from the Wind spacecraft's Suprathermal Ion Composition Spectrometer (STICS). The award, effective November 12, 2024, with completion targeted for January 5, 2029, supports the University of Michigan's Office of Research and Sponsored Projects in Ann Arbor. This effort builds upon three decades of solar wind measurements provided by the Wind spacecraft, generating new data products across multiple ion species and reference frames to enhance the scientific community's ability to leverage the instrument's capabilities for studying particle acceleration and space plasma fractionation phenomena.

The research will produce a comprehensive long-term baseline of suprathermal and isotopic composition measurements to enable statistical studies of space plasmas across multiple solar cycles both inside the magnetosphere and at the L1 point. These data products and resulting insights are intended to advance understanding of critical processes including solar system formation, particle acceleration mechanisms, solar fractionation, planetary atmosphere evolution, and solar wind interactions. The contract contains no set-aside designation and represents an open competitive procurement for research services within NASA's broader space physics investigation portfolio.

The wind spacecraft has been providing invaluable solar wind measurements for 30 years, still providing some of the most unique and reliable measurements to date. The SMS instrument suite contains two operational plasma mass spectrometers: the suprathermal ION composition spectrometer (stics), and the mass sensor. These two instruments provide unique suprathermal compotions and kinetic properties, as well as elementa and isotopic abundances, of space plasmas. Stics data has been sued to study a variety of topics, including solar wind suprathermal tails, thermal and suprathermal composition of icmes, acceleration processes within the heliosphere, and pickup ions from the moon and comets. While data from mass has been used to study SI and MG fractionation in the solar wind early in the iwnd mission a very limited set of public data has prevented IT from achieving its full scientific impact. We propose to continue to develop new data products form wind/stics for a range of ions and reference frames, so that the scientific community can leverage SMS capabilities to address open science questions relating to particle acceleration and the fractionation of space plasmas. Continuing to build a long baselineof sprathermal and isotopic composition measurements will have a significant impact on long term statistical studies of the space plasmas, as well as detailed event studies across multiple solar cycles inside the magnetosphere and at L1. These insights will contribute to more accurate theories and models of solar system formation, particle acceleration, solar fractionation, planetary atmosphere evolution, circulation, and solar wind interactions.