"The Solar Probe Cup of the Parker Solar Probe" Awarded Top Cited Paper of 2023

A paper entitled “The Solar Probe Cup on Parker Solar Probe” published in 2020 has recently been recognized as having its number of citations to be in the top 1% of all astronomy-related papers published between 2020 and 2023!  The Solar Probe Cup (SPC) is one of several instruments aboard the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) which was launched in August 2018.  Dr. Ken Wright of STI is one of several co-authors on this paper whose lead author is Dr. Anthony (Tony) Case, the SPC Instrument Scientist. The SPC is part of the Solar Wind Electrons, Alphas, and Protons (SWEAP) investigation whose Principal Investigator is Dr. Justin Kasper. 

The PSP has completed 18 of 24 planned perihelion passes near the sun.  Closest approach to date of the sun is 11.4 solar radii.  The SWEAP hardware aboard PSP, including the SPC, is allowing scientists from all over the world to explore the solar wind as it is created and accelerated from the sun enabling discovery of new aspects of its characteristics and behavior.

The PSP is managed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of John Hopkins University: https://psp-gateway.jhuapl.edu

Data from the SPC can be found at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory - Harvard University: http://sweap.cfa.harvard.edu/Data.html