ICON – The Ionospheric Connection Explorer

Update — NASA has selected ICON to be the next Heliophysics Explorer satellite mission.  The Ionospheric Connection Explorer was selected along with a Mission Of Opportunity (GOLD; Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk) to move forward into development (Phase B).  ICON, to be lead by the University of California, Berkeley will provide NASA’s Heliophysics division with a powerful new capability to determine the conditions in space modified by weather on the planet, and to understand the way space weather events grow to envelop regions of our planet with dense ionospheric plasma.

Link to the official announcement.
 

Greetings all! This site is dedicated to the ICON Explorer, whose 2-year mission to Earth will give us incredible new views of the boundary between our atmosphere and space, where planetary weather and space weather meet!

ICON is a NASA Heliophysics Explorer, a new mission that if selected by NASA during the Explorer 2011 round, will give NASA’s Heliophysics division powerful new capability to determine the conditions in space modified by weather on the planet, and to understand the way space weather events grow to envelop regions of our planet with dense ionospheric plasma.