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PUNCH stands for

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Polarimeter
Unify the Corona and Heliosphere.

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The corona is the outer atmosphere
of the sun.

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It's the part of the sun
that you get to see during a total

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solar eclipse, where the moon blocks out
the main body of the sun.

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PUNCH makes artificial eclipses
all the time, so that we can see that

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corona as it turns into the solar wind
and fills our solar system

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with material.

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The solar wind is important to study
because it's the way

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that the sun sends out
material out into our solar system.

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It's constantly bombarding

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all of the planets, including Earth
and Earth's magnetic field.

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And it's very important to understand,
because of space weather,

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the big solar storms that have to
propagate through the solar wind,

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and they impact our astronauts

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and Earth's magnetic field
and cause effects like the aurora

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Parker Solar Probe is so

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cool because it's flying through the outer
parts of the corona right

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now, measuring that material
that's coming off of the sun.

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Meanwhile, PUNCH
is going to take global images,

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seeing how that corona turns into
the solar wind and fills our solar system.

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So we'll be able to connect the details
that Parker Solar Probe sees

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with the big picture,
the global picture of what's happening

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everywhere.

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PUNCH is comprised

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of four small satellites,
their suitcase sized satellites.

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Each one has an instrument
that together looks at the global picture.

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So we have one instrument,
the Narrow Field Imager.

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It looks pretty close to the sun
and really gets that the solar corona,

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the atmosphere of the sun.

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And then we have three wide field imagers

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that because of their orbit,
they look in different places of the sky.

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And together
we piece together the whole global image

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of the material coming off of the sun,
filling our solar system.

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PUNCH is orbiting
in a place that we call low Earth orbit.

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That means it's

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sort of the closest to Earth it can be,
while still being in outer space.

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And above Earth's atmosphere.

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That would, block the light.

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The PUNCH ride share

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SPHEREx
is incredibly exciting for two reasons.

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One is practical,
and because it is an efficient way

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to get up into space
and to use the taxpayers money.

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The second reason is that both PUNCH
and SPHEREx are exploring

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the big picture. SPHEREx is exploring
the big picture of the cosmos, and PUNCH

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is exploring the big picture of the sun
and how it fills our solar

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system.

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PUNCH links

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to the Heliophysics System Observatory,
which is all of these missions

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that we have in heliophysics
connecting the sun

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and how that material fills
the solar system and impacts

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Earth and Earth's environment
and fills the whole solar system.

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So punch provides the global picture
that all of those other missions,

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we can combine
with all of those other missions

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to really understand this full connected
system between the sun and the Earth.

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The sun
is in a period of heightened activity.

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That means there are more of these

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solar storms,
these magnetic explosions on the sun,

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these magnetic explosions, come outwards
and they can impact our satellites.

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They can hurt our astronauts.

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So they're really important to understand.

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PUNCH s going to watch those
in three dimensions

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and will be able to tell if they're coming
towards the earth or going away

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from the Earth, or in some other direction
in the solar system.

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Meanwhile, Parker Solar Probe is sampling
some of those solar storms

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right after they're formed, right
at the beginning in tremendous detail.

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And together with PUNCH,
we can really understand how they evolve

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through the inner solar system.

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What I'm so excited

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for about PUNCH is that PUNCH sees

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not just the global scale
and the big solar storms.

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It also sees the daily little storms
that happen all of the time.

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The sun is never quiet.

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It is constantly putting out bursts of
of magnetic field and material.

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And those bursts of magnetic field,
the material impact

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the Earth and can drive, space
weather events like

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impacting our radiation belts, 
impacting our satellites.

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And PUNCH is going to see the big
storms and the smaller storms

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One cool upcoming mission is called EZIE..

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EZIE is going to connect
the magnetic field of the Earth.

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And, during these solar storms,
when they impact the Earth,

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the connection between the Earth's
magnetic field and Earth's ionosphere,

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the currents that flow through ionosphere
is what EZIE is going to measure.

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Now, PUNCH’s noise
is the high altitude aurora,

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the northern lights
and the southern lights

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that occurred
during these magnetic reconfigurations

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and current systems
that happen during the solar storm.

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So our noise is going to be related
to what EZIE is measuring directly.

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And we can really work together
with them to solve these problems

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in heliophysics.

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Our viewers can learn more about PUNCH
at [nasa.gov/punch] NASA

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Dot gov slash punch.