Heliophysics

Global Geospace Science (GGS) Polar satellite

Remote Sensing Observatory · Directed · Agency-led · Launched on February 24, 1996 · Completed · LCC: $325M/$757M (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For Polar, papers published March 1, 1996 to May 1, 2010. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For Polar, papers published from 1997 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods741
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods23,767
Citation indices
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. Methods76
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-indexm-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; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods2.5
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): 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. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods157
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. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods417

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (741)

All publications CSV · JSON

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

    Newell, P. T., 2007, JGRA

    593 lifetime citations

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

    Newell, P. T., 2011, JGRA

    538 lifetime citations

  3. Evidence of Diffusion Regions at a Subsolar Magnetopause Crossing

    Mozer, F. S., 2002, PhRvL

    329 lifetime citations

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

    Green, Janet C., 2004, JGRA

    272 lifetime 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

    264 lifetime citations

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

    Nakamura, R., 2001, JGR

    232 lifetime citations

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

    Waters, C. L., 2001, GeoRL

    231 lifetime citations

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

    Lorentzen, K. R., 2001, JGR

    231 lifetime citations

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

    Mozer, F. S., 1997, PhRvL

    229 lifetime 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

    224 lifetime citations

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

    LeDocq, M. J., 1998, GeoRL

    223 lifetime citations

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

    Raeder, J., 2001, JGR

    220 lifetime citations

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

    Tsyganenko, N. A., 2003, JGRA

    193 lifetime 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

    184 lifetime citations

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

    Sibeck, D. G., 1999, JGR

    179 lifetime citations

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

    Milan, S. E., 2003, AnGeo

    172 lifetime citations

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

    Tsyganenko, N. A., 2007, JGRA

    172 lifetime citations

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

    Zhou, Xiaoyan, 1999, GeoRL

    170 lifetime citations

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

    Angelopoulos, V., 1997, GeoRL

    162 lifetime citations

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

    Sergeev, V. A., 1999, GeoRL

    161 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming Polar in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

((=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 "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (4)

  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 🤖