Welcome to the STEREO PLASTIC website...

Part of the NASA STEREO mission for providing a global view of the Sun and its effects on the Heliosphere.

The NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission uses two nearly identical spacecraft in orbit about the Sun to provide a unique and revolutionary view of the Sun-Earth system. The strategic placement of the two spacecraft allows for the first time a stereoscopic (3-D) view of the Sun and the interplanetary space environment out to the orbit of the Earth.  Of particular interest to this mission is the origin, propagation and evolution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are the primary cause of major space weather disturbances at the Earth.

The STEREO payload combines remote imaging of the Sun and its eruptions with in-situ sampling of the particles and fields that subsequently flow past the spacecraft. The Plasma and Suprathermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) portion of the scientific payload samples the solar wind and suprathermal particles, providing measurements of kinetic properties and composition.  The PLASTIC consortium includes the University of New Hampshire, the University of Bern, the Max Planck Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, under the overall direction of the University of New Hampshire (Dr. A.B. Galvin,PI).

STEREO STATUS:

STEREO was successfully launched at 8:52 pm on October 25, 2006 (EDT). Both spacecraft are now in heliocentric orbits. The second year of the two year mission was completed on January 21, 2009. The mission has been extended.

Latest PLASTIC status:

PLASTIC A and PLASTIC B are operating nominally.

Translation Available

This page has been translated by Patric Conrad: Belorussian translation