The Global Geospace Science (GGS) Polar Satellite was a NASA science spacecraft launched at 06:23:59.997 EST on February 24, 1996 aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket from launch pad 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, to observe the polar magnetosphere. Polar was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin Astro Space Division in East Windsor, New Jersey.
Polar is in a highly elliptical, 86 degree orbital inclination with an orbital period of about 18 hours. It gathers multi-wavelength imaging of the aurora, and measures the entry of plasma into the polar magnetosphere and the geomagnetic tail, the flow of plasma to and from the ionosphere, and the deposition of particle energy in the ionosphere and upper atmosphere.
Polar Mission Operations were terminated[1] at 14:54:41 EDT on April 28, 2008 from the WIND/POLAR Mission Operations Room (MOR) in Building 3 at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Polar is the sister ship to GGS Wind.
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