The Observatory for Heteroscale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (OHMIC) is a mission concept proposed in 2011 to NASA's

Explorers program The Explorers program is a NASA exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, geophysics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United Stat ...

consisting of a pair of spacecraft flying in formation studying the energy powering

space weather Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the time varying conditions within the Solar System, including the solar wind, emphasizing the space surrounding the Earth, including conditions in the ma ...

. The

Principal Investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

for the mission is James Burch of the

Southwest Research Institute Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is an independent and nonprofit applied research and development (R&D) organization. Founded in 1947 by oil businessman Tom Slick, it provides contract research and develop ...

in San Antonio, Texas. The concept was not selected for development at that time. The mission proposed to investigate how magnetospheric electromagnetic energy flows downward to power

aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

e, and study how ion outflows are initiated and modify the underlying

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...

.Utility of NASA’s Heliophysics Research Fleet for Space Weather Prediction.
(PDF). Barbara Giles, NASA. The 2012 Space Weather Workshop, April 25, 2012; page 11. Specifically, it would "investigate the coupling of Earth's

magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dynam ...

and ionosphere focusing on the conversion of electromagnetic energy into particle energy in auroral acceleration regions."The OHMIC Mission
Ergun, R.; Burch, J. L.; Lotko, W.; Frey, H. U.; Chaston, C. C. ''American Geophysical Union'', Fall Meeting 2013, abstract id.SM52A-07. December 2013. To this end, the two spacecraft would measure electron distributions, ion distributions, and vector electric and magnetic fields for determining how charged-particle acceleration and injection vary in time and space.

References

Explorers Program Ionosphere Proposed spacecraft {{US-spacecraft-stub