The goal of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission was to understand the tug-of-war between Earth’s atmosphere and the space environment. In the “no man’s land” of the ionosphere, a continuous struggle between solar forcing and Earth’s weather systems drive extreme and unpredicted variability. ICON investigated the forces at play in the near-space environment, leading the way in understanding disturbances that can lead to severe interference with communications and GPS signals.
