One of the spacecrafts has already flown past a border that used to be considered a science fiction movie. In 2021, Parker Solar Probe flew through the Earth of the Sun, being the first human-made object to sample the upper atmosphere of a star.
The importance of that milestone is that the Sun is not a light source only. Its shifting magnetism causes flares, bursts of particles, and coronal mass ejections that may disrupt radio connections, satellites, navigation and even electrical systems at ground level. The engineering answer is not a solitary telescope, but is a distributed observatory created out of numerous missions that observe various parts of the SunEarth system concurrently.
1. Parker Solar Probe
The role of Parker Solar Probe is proximity. During successive dives on the Sun, it directly probes particle and field in the place where the solar wind is generated and where the corona gets heated. Its historic accomplishment, flying through the corona of the Sun, changed coronal physics to focus on remote sensing to in-situ sampling, which allowed instrument teams to connect giant solar structures to the conditions in space that eventually travel throughout the solar system.
2. High-latitude perspective of Solar Orbiter
Almost all planetary Solar images that had been published were around the equator of the Sun since planets and most spacecraft were located in the ecliptic plane. Such geometry is altered by Solar Orbiter. It also flew past its orbit to provide the first ever images of the pole of the Sun using telescopes and magnetic-field studies had a new platform it had lacked decades before.
The observations of the poles immediately revealed the complexity of the south pole: measurements revealed a mixed polarity field at the time of the solar maximum, when the global field reverses. The instrument package on Solar Orbiter also extended the range of measurements that can be done at high latitudes, such as spectral lines Doppler tracking to track the movement of the solar material in layers above the surface – which is important in the process of accelerating the particles in the outbound solar wind.
3. The coronograph watch of SOHO that is long lasting
SOHO was launched in 1995 and constructed to do a study of the Sun, which is akin to a study of the Sun inside out. SOHO became one of the most enduring sentinels of the space-weather period. It has enabled constant surveillance of the atmosphere of the Sun and has led to some of the biggest discoveries, such as over 5,000 comets. Another pillar of tracking large ejections leaving the Sun and expanding into interplanetary space is still made by SOHO due to its coronagraph observations.
4. 3D view of eruptions by STEREO
STEREO was meant to convert the two-dimensional coronal mass ejections into 3D. The mission made stereoscopic reconstructions of CME structure and motion possible by observing eruptions at different angles, using two similar observatories. As the STEREO-A is still in operation, the off-angle view still serves to fill in when Earth-line imagers are not able to fully sort out the geometry of an event.
5. The complete-disk vigilance of Solar Dynamics Observatory
The space weather begins with the magnetic fields where energy is stored and released. The Solar Dynamics Observatory follows the interior and the atmosphere of the Sun and traces the way, in which magnetic formations develop into the active spots, which could result in the eruptions. Its constant, high-speed full-disk scans assist in relating the variations appearing on the surface with coronal restructuring capable of being present before storms.
6. ACE and Wind as upstream samplers
The solar wind propels some of the most practical measurements even before it gets into the magnetic environment of the earth. Missions like ACE and Wind have sampled incoming flow of charged particles and magnetic fields embedded into it and these are believed to support models estimating the extent of how well the magnetosphere of Earth will be driven. Practically, such upstream monitoring may be converted into short-warning operation decision-making during spacecrafts and ground systems under changed conditions.
7. Proba-3, Proba-2, and an absent coronal area
The development of coronal mass ejections as they travel between the low corona and the outer corona is not clearly understood but conventional instruments frequently give a gap between the precipitate in the extreme-ultraviolet images and that in the conventional coronagraphs, both more distant. ESA offers a fill to that gap with the formation-flying Proba-3 which has the ASPIICS coronagraph which can see the inner corona. As explained in mission commentary, ASPIICS occupies the gap between the EUV imaging and outer-corona coronagraph images, allowing greater continuous monitoring of CME structure as it expands.
These missions work as a unified instrument in space: intimate examination of the corona, polar observation in order to confine the solar cycle, coronagraph monitoring to track eruptions away and upstream measurements of the particles to predict the reaction of the magnetic shield of the earth. The consequence is a continuity-based system of engineering- since variability of the Sun is continuous.
