The solar wind and the Sun-Earth link

The solar wind fills the space between the Sun and its planets, shapes the planetary environments and the heliosphere, and comes to a screeching halt at the heliopause, the boundary with the interstellar medium. This tenuous medium is a fertile environment for exotic plasma processes, most of which are not fully understood. It also holds the intimate secrets of the mechanisms heating the corona that continue to elude us. As the only accessible space plasma laboratory, we must continue its exploration in search of the processes that impact the Earth's environment and govern the evolution of stars and their planetary systems.