Utility of Heliophysics Scientific Research Missions for Enabling Space Weather Prediction

The goal of NASA's Heliophysics Division is to develop an understanding of the Sun and its interactions with the Earth and the solar system. Heliophysics missions continue to yield insights and information that are not only of research value, but provide a solid basis for the improvement of space situational awareness. These missions have provided a range of data with unprecedented resolution, spatial, temporal, and thermal, across a wide range of scales. Observations also support the research and development of models and drive models in their operational phase. The 2012 launch of RBSP and the planned launch of the major strategic mission–MMS – along with the Small Explorer, IRIS and the distributed systems observatory they create in combination, are significant assets allowing our scientific community to achieve major advances in understanding and predicting the space environment. The Division is completing the process of developing a science and technology community roadmap to chart the division's course over the coming decades. The National Research Council's Decadal Survey report, Solar and Space Physics: a Science for a Technological Society was used as the basis for this roadmap taking into account recent advances in our capabilities and understanding and the availability of resources. The programs, initiatives, and investments in the field outlined in the Survey and codified in the Heliophysics community roadmap are designed to make fundamental advances in current scientific knowledge of the governing processes of the space environment—from the interior of the Sun, to the atmosphere of Earth, to the local interstellar medium. The roadmap also highlights new opportunities for coordination and cooperation with other Federal agencies and international partners.