Solar and heliospheric observatory (SOHO) (1995) #8

Abstract

SOHO is the most comprehensive space mission ever devoted to the study of theSun and its nearby cosmic environment knownas the heliosphere. It was launched in December 1995 and is currently funded at least throughthe end of 2016. SOHO’s 12 instruments observe and measure structures and processes occurring inside as well as outside the Sun and which reach well beyond Earth’s orbit into the heliosphere. While designed to study the “quiet”Sun, the new capabilities andcombination of several SOHO instruments have revolutionized space weather research. This articlegives a brief mission overview, summarizes selected highlight results, anddescribes SOHO’s contributions to space weather research. These include cotemporaneousEUV imagingof activity in the Sun’s corona and white-light imaging of coronalmass ejections in the extended corona, magnetometry in the Sun’s atmosphere, imagingof far-side activity, measurements to predict solar proton storms, and monitoring solar wind plasma at the L1 Lagrangian point, 1.5 million kilometers upstream of Earth.