Overview:

STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) is the third mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP). This two-year mission will employ two nearly identical space-based observatories - one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind - to provide the first-ever stereoscopic measurements to study the Sun and the nature of its coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

Objectives:

• Understand the causes and mechanisms of coronal mass ejection (CME) initiation.

• Characterize the propagation of CMEs through the heliosphere.

• Discover the mechanisms and sites of energetic particle acceleration in the low corona and the interplanetary medium.

• Improve the determination of the structure of the ambient solar wind.

Experiments:

• SECCHI Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation

• SWAVES -  STEREO/WAVES Interplanetary radio burst tracker

• IMPACT IN-SITU Measurements of particles and CME transients

• PLASTIC Plasma and Suprathermal Ion Composition