How Heliophysics Scientific Research Missions Support 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 support science research while providing 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 launch of the Small Explorer, IRIS, and the planned launch of a major strategic mission, MMS, later this year will provide new data about how solar activity starts and how it influences the Earth. The Heliosphysics distributed systems observatory allows our scientific community to achieve major advances in understanding and predicting the space environment. The Division has developed 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 and initiatives 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, and outward to the local interstellar medium. The roadmap also highlights new opportunities for coordination and cooperation with other Federal agencies and international partners. I will discuss the current state of the Heliophysics Division and what to expect in the future.