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IMPACTing Installation

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STEREO personnel complete the final installation of the IMPACT boom on Observatory "B" (the one that will be placed "behind" Earth in its orbit around sun).

IMPACT (In situ Measurements of PArticles and CME Transients) is one of the instrument suites placed onboard each observatory. The IMPACT investigation provides measurements of the solar wind electrons, interplanetary magnetic fields, and solar energetic particles.

IMPACT comprises seven instruments including a solar wind electron analyzer, a magnetometer, and an array of particle detectors measuring the energetic ions and electrons accelerated in coronal mass ejection (CME) shocks and in solar flares. IMPACT's principal investigator is Janet Luhmann of the University of California, Berkeley.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory