The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory : this service is meant to provide information of interest to the general public, as well as to the international solar physics and solar-terrestrial physics communities, on the goals and status of the SOHO mission. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The ACRIMSAT Mission will measure Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) during its five-year mission life. The ACRIMSAT spacecraft, carrying the ACRIM III instrument, will be secondary payload on a Taurus vehicle scheduled to launch in December 1999. The instrument, third in a series of long-term solar-monitoring tools built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will continue to extend the database first created by ACRIM I, which was launched in 1980 on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft. ACRIM II followed on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in 1991.

The Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum NASA's Office of Space Science (OSS) explores four broad themes, "Sun-Earth Connection," "Solar System Exploration," "Structure and Evolution of the Universe," and, "Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems." For each of these themes, OSS has created an "Education Forum" so that educators, students and the general public can share the excitement of discoveries and knowledge generated by Space Science missions and research programs. To explore Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum resources, use the links on the left side of this page. Use the links below to visit the other Forums. The Forums, in partnership with "Broker/Facilitator" institutions, make up the Space Science Education and Public Outreach "Ecosystem"

" The Shuttle Discovery launched the Ulysses spacecraft on October 6, 1990. To reach high solar latitudes, the spacecraft was aimed close to Jupiter so that Jupiter's large gravitational field would accelerate Ulysses out of the ecliptic plane to high latitudes.
Encounter with Jupiter occurred on February 8, 1992, and since then Ulysses traveled to higher latitudes with maximum Southern latitude of 80.2 degrees being achieved on September 13, 1994. Ulysses traveled through high Northern latitudes during June through September 1995. These high latitude observations were obtained during the quiet (minimum) portion of the 11-year solar cycle.
In order to fully understand our amazing star, it was necessary to study the Sun at near maximum conditions. During the Solar Maximum mission, Ulysses reached maximum Southern latitude on November 27, 2000 and traveled through High Northern latitude September through December 2001. " ... more

" The primary scientific objective of HESSI is to understand the following processes that take place in the magnetized plasmas of the solar atmosphere during a flare:

Impulsive energy release,

Particle acceleration,

Particle and energy transport.

These high-energy processes play a major role at sites throughout the universe ranging from magnetospheres to active galaxies. Consequently, the importance of understanding these processes transcends the field of solar physics; it is one of the major goals of space physics and astrophysics.
The high energy processes of interest include the following:

The rapid release of energy stored in unstable magnetic configurations,

The equally rapid conversion of this energy into the kinetic energy of hot plasma and accelerated particles (primarily electrons, protons and ions),

The transport of these particles through the solar atmosphere and into interplanetary space,

The subsequent heating of the ambient solar atmosphere.
These processes involve:

Particle energies to many GeV, " ... more