DRIVE Science Centers
In response to the 2013 Heliophysics Decadal Survey, NASA established three DRIVE (Diversify, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate) Centers to create breakthrough science in heliophysics by integrating models from different domains and approaches.
About the DRIVE Science Centers
NASA’s Diversify, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate (DRIVE) Science Centers will create breakthrough science in heliophysics, the field studying the Sun and its sphere of influence, by creating and improving physics-based computational models that can help simulate parts of the heliophysics system and enable a deep understanding of our local space environments. Understanding these processes will also help scientists develop and improve space weather predictions.
Each DRIVE Science Center looks to “diversify” the use of observing platforms by creating new physics-based computational models that scientists can use to observe and predict space weather patterns, “realize” the scientific potential of existing assets, “integrate” those current observing platforms into programs and investigations, “venture” forward with new technologies by pursuing important science problems, and “educate” the future heliophysics workforce by mentoring early career scientists and students.
The DRIVE Science Centers comprise a consortium of collaborating institutions that contribute to the research. The three Centers are:
- Center for Geospace Storms (CGS)
- Consequences Of Fields and Flows in the Interior and Exterior of the Sun (COFFIES) center
- The Solar wind with Hydrogen Ion charge Exchange and Large-Scale Dynamics (SHIELD) center work together closely to address grand challenge science goals.
CGS
The DRIVE Science Center for Geospace Storms (CGS) aims to unravel the complex web of interactions during solar storms in geospace, the roughly one million miles of space that surrounds Earth.
COFFIES
The COFFIES (Consequences Of Fields and Flows in the Interior and Exterior of the Sun) DRIVE Science Center advances understanding of the Sun in order to forecast activity cycles and magnetic variability.
SHIELD
SHIELD (Solar wind with Hydrogen Ion charge Exchange and Large-Scale Dynamics) brings together scientists with a variety of expertise and divergent opinions to study the processes that protect our heliosphere from the harsh interstellar environment.
