**Heliophysicists Call for Increased NASA Funding and New Missions to Study the Sun**
A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has made a strong case for significant advancements in heliophysics, the study of the Sun and its influence across the Solar System. Released on December 5, 2024, the report urges NASA to double its funding for the field, increasing its annual budget from $879 million to $1.65 billion over the next decade. The additional funds would support the development of critical new missions and enhance scientific understanding of solar phenomena that directly impact Earth.
The proposed funding would allow NASA to undertake two major initiatives. The first would be a spacecraft designed to orbit the poles of the Sun, providing new insights into its magnetic field and how it drives solar activity. The second, the Links mission, involves the creation of a constellation of 24 satellites around Earth to map how the Sun’s behavior affects the planet’s magnetic fields. In addition, the report recommends the National Science Foundation (NSF) upgrade a global network of ground-based telescopes, allowing for continuous monitoring of seismic waves on the Sun, also known as helioseismology.
Despite the availability of state-of-the-art instruments like NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the NSF’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope—the world’s largest solar telescope—the report highlights an identity crisis in the field, as heliophysics draws on multiple disciplines including astrophysics, atmospheric science, and plasma physics. As a result, heliophysicists face challenges in fostering cohesive collaborations and in recruiting new talent.
One of the major findings of the report is the need for improved coordination across these varied disciplines. While there is some grassroots collaboration between individual researchers and missions, such as the alignment between NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and Europe’s Solar Orbiter, the report suggests that more systematic coordination is required. It recommends creating a unified community working group to ensure that space and ground-based assets are aligned in their research efforts.
A particularly ambitious mission proposed in the report is the Solar Polar Orbiter, a $1.3 billion project aimed at studying the Sun’s magnetic dynamo by sending a spacecraft to orbit the Sun’s poles. This mission would allow researchers to observe helioseismic ripples for the first time, a key process for understanding the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle and the fundamental generation of magnetic fields in stars. The report also calls for an upgrade to the Global Oscillations Network Group (ngGONG), which uses six observatories around the Earth to monitor solar oscillations and probe the Sun’s interior.
In addition to these proposed missions, the report stresses the importance of improving operational predictions for space weather, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These events can have devastating effects on satellite communications, power grids, and aviation. While space weather forecasting has improved, current predictions remain limited, with accuracy often only extending a few hours, and a high rate of false positives. The report argues that better coordination between agencies could improve these predictions and reduce the operational disruptions caused by solar storms.
The report also proposes a rebranding of the field, suggesting that a new name could help raise the visibility of heliophysics. Terms like “local cosmology” have been proposed as a potential way to capture the public’s imagination and convey the field’s importance. The report’s authors believe that a name change could help make heliophysics more accessible to the public, as many are unfamiliar with the term despite the field’s groundbreaking discoveries.
Overall, the report calls for a bold vision for the future of solar and space physics, with an emphasis on collaboration, new missions, and enhanced funding. By increasing resources and streamlining coordination across disciplines, heliophysicists hope to deepen our understanding of the Sun and its powerful influence over the Solar System. With space weather becoming an increasingly important area of study, the proposed advancements could play a vital role in safeguarding Earth’s technological infrastructure in the decades to come.
