Heliophysics

Polar

742 tracked publications and 23,579 citations from 1997–2026. Global Geospace Science (GGS) Polar satellite. Launched 1996. Life-cycle cost: $757M in 2025 dollars. Active Mission Window March 1, 1996 to May 1, 2010: 620 publications, 22 top-10% credit.

Remote Sensing Observatory · h-index 75 · 50 papers with 100+ citations · prime mission ended 1998

Lifetime

Scope Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the prime mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Every tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. Methods

Key measures

Active Mission Window · papers March 1, 1996 to May 1, 2010
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed research papers we found for the mission. The list may not be complete. Methods620
CitationsCitations received by the tracked publications in the selected scope. The two windowed scopes count each paper’s citations only within its citation window. Methods3,728
Mean citations per publicationMean citations: total citations divided by tracked publications in the selected scope. One blockbuster paper can lift it. Methods6.0
Median citations per publicationMedian citations: the middle paper’s citation count in the selected scope; half the papers have more, half fewer. A single blockbuster sways it less than the mean. Methods4
Uncited publicationsUncited publications: papers with no citations in the selected scope. Methods82 (13%)
Top-10% creditTop 10%: among the 10% most-cited papers from this division’s missions, ranked against papers published around the same time. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods22 · 1.5% of division
Top-1% creditTop 1%: among the 1% most-cited papers from this division’s missions within the selected window. Not adjusted for publication year. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods0 · 0% of division
Lifetime indices · every tracked publication to date, in any scope
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods75
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods116
m-index, as of October 4, 2026m-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes, so it belongs to the date shown; it also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods2.5
toritori (total research impact, from ADS): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Methods147
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Methods404

Tracked publications

  1. A nearly universal solar wind-magnetosphere coupling function inferred from 10 magnetospheric state variables

    Newell, P. T., 2007, JGRA

    581 citations

  2. Evaluation of SuperMAG auroral electrojet indices as indicators of substorms and auroral power

    Newell, P. T., 2011, JGRA

    526 citations

  3. Evidence of Diffusion Regions at a Subsolar Magnetopause Crossing

    Mozer, F. S., 2002, PhRvL

    326 citations

  4. Relativistic electrons in the outer radiation belt: Differentiating between acceleration mechanisms

    Green, Janet C., 2004, JGRA

    269 citations

  5. Evidence for kinetic Alfvén waves and parallel electron energization at 4-6 R_{E} altitudes in the plasma sheet boundary layer

    Wygant, J. R., 2002, JGRA

    261 citations

  6. Estimation of global field aligned currents using the iridium® System magnetometer data

    Waters, C. L., 2001, GeoRL

    231 citations

  7. Earthward flow bursts, auroral streamers, and small expansions

    Nakamura, R., 2001, JGR

    230 citations

  8. New Features of Time Domain Electric-Field Structures in the Auroral Acceleration Region

    Mozer, F. S., 1997, PhRvL

    227 citations

  9. Observations of relativistic electron microbursts in association with VLF chorus

    Lorentzen, K. R., 2001, JGR

    226 citations

  10. Polar spacecraft based comparisons of intense electric fields and Poynting flux near and within the plasma sheet-tail lobe boundary to UVI images: An energy source for the aurora

    Wygant, J. R., 2000, JGR

    222 citations

  11. Chorus source locations from VLF Poynting flux measurements with the Polar spacecraft

    LeDocq, M. J., 1998, GeoRL

    220 citations

  12. Global simulation of the Geospace Environment Modeling substorm challenge event

    Raeder, J., 2001, JGR

    218 citations

  13. Storm-time distortion of the inner magnetosphere: How severe can it get?

    Tsyganenko, N. A., 2003, JGRA

    190 citations

  14. Comparisons of Polar satellite observations of solitary wave velocities in the plasma sheet boundary and the high altitude cusp to those in the auroral zone

    Cattell, C. A., 1999, GeoRL

    180 citations

  15. Comprehensive study of the magnetospheric response to a hot flow anomaly

    Sibeck, D. G., 1999, JGR

    177 citations

  16. Variations in the polar cap area during two substorm cycles

    Milan, S. E., 2003, AnGeo

    171 citations

  17. Rapid intensification and propagation of the dayside aurora: Large scale interplanetary pressure pulses (fast shocks)

    Zhou, Xiaoyan, 1999, GeoRL

    170 citations

  18. Magnetospheric configurations from a high-resolution data-based magnetic field model

    Tsyganenko, N. A., 2007, JGRA

    170 citations

  19. Magnetotail flow bursts: Association to global magnetospheric circulation, relationship to ionospheric activity and direct evidence for localization

    Angelopoulos, V., 1997, GeoRL

    161 citations

  20. Development of auroral streamers in association with localized impulsive injections to the inner magnetotail

    Sergeev, V. A., 1999, GeoRL

    160 citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for peer-reviewed articles naming Polar in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces. SciX is ADS’s current interface.

((=abs:"GGS Polar" OR =abs:"NASA Polar Spacecraft" OR =abs:"NASA Polar mission" OR (abs:"Polar" AND abs:"GGS") OR (abs:"Polar" AND (abs:"HYDRA" OR abs:"CAMMICE" OR abs:"CEPPAD" OR abs:"TIMAS" OR abs:"PIXIE")) OR =abs:"Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment" OR =abs:"Toroidal Imaging Mass-Angle Spectrograph" OR =abs:"Charge and Mass Magnetospheric Ion Composition Experiment" OR =abs:"Comprehensive Energetic-Particle Pitch Angle Distribution" OR =abs:"Polar Ionospheric X-ray Imaging Experiment" OR ((=abs:"Polar spacecraft" OR =abs:"Polar satellite" OR =abs:"Polar mission" OR =abs:"Polar UV" OR =abs:"Polar Lyman-Birge-Hopfield" OR =abs:"Polar Ultraviolet Imager" OR =abs:"Polar/UVI" OR =abs:"Polar/VIS" OR =abs:"Polar/PWI" OR =abs:"Polar/EFI" OR =abs:"Polar EFI" OR =abs:"Polar/MFE" OR =abs:"Polar and Geotail" OR =abs:"Geotail and Polar" OR =abs:"Polar-Geotail" OR =abs:"Polar and Interball" OR =abs:"Interball and Polar" OR =abs:"Polar-Interball" OR =abs:"Polar and DMSP" OR =abs:"Polar and Fast Auroral Snapshot" OR =abs:"Polar, FAST, and Interball" OR (abs:"Polar" AND (abs:UVI OR abs:PWI OR abs:MFE OR abs:HIST OR abs:TIDE OR =abs:"Visible Imaging System" OR =abs:"Earth Camera" OR =abs:"Magnetic Field Experiment" OR =abs:"High Sensitivity Telescope"))) AND abs:(magnetosphere OR magnetospheric OR magnetosheath OR magnetopause OR magnetotail OR aurora OR auroral OR substorm OR cusp OR ="plasma sheet" OR ="radiation belt" OR ="ring current" OR ="polar cap" OR ="polar wind" OR ="ion outflow" OR ="ionospheric outflow" OR whistler OR chorus OR plasmasphere) AND NOT abs:(Saturn OR Jupiter OR Jovian OR Kronian OR Mars OR Martian OR Mercury OR Uranus OR Neptune OR Titan OR Ganymede OR GUVI)))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[1996-03 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "AIASJ" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NewSc" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (14)

  1. Designing symmetric polar direct drive implosions on the Omega laser facility Laser-fusion study; "polar" refers to polar direct drive, not the spacecraft. Decision 🤖
  2. Fiberoptic Array Spectroscopy of NH₂ in Comet Hale-Bopp: Nature of the Rotational Energy Distributions Comet spectroscopy with a ground telescope's HYDRA spectrometer; unrelated to Polar. Decision 🤖
  3. Solar CIV vacuum-ultraviolet Fabry-Perot interferometers Design of a solar ultraviolet interferometer; mentions Polar's imager only as heritage. Decision 🤖
  4. Preface Editorial preface to a monograph; not a research paper. Decision 🤖
  5. 1995SSRv...71..797K Describes the Sondrestrom ground radar facility; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  6. 1995SSRv...71..761G Describes the SuperDARN ground radar network; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  7. 1995SSRv...71..743R Describes the CANOPUS ground instrument array; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  8. 1995SSRv...71..705D Describes the SESAME Antarctic ground program; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  9. 1995SSRv...71..691R Pre-launch plan for a modelling project; mentions Polar only as a future data source. Decision 🤖
  10. 1995SSRv...71..671P Pre-launch plan for an ISTP modelling project; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  11. 1995SSRv...71..647A Pre-launch plan for ISTP theory support; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  12. 1995SSRv...71..623H Pre-launch plan for an ISTP modelling team; Polar is not named. Decision 🤖
  13. 1995SSRv...71...41W Overview of international solar-terrestrial program coordination; reports no results. Decision 🤖
  14. 1995SSRv...71....1R Foreword to a journal special issue; not a research paper. Decision 🤖