摘要：The resurgence of Sun activity after an extraordinary 4-year sunspot minimum means that the uppermost layers of Earth's atmosphere are again being strongly heated and are expanding outward. This is causing increased atmospheric drag on low Earth-orbiting satellites. The Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) spacecraft is now expected to succumb to this important space weather phenomenon. After 2 decades of extraordinary achievements, SAMPEX is falling victim to the very solar activity and enhanced space weather disturbances that it has helped to assess and understand. The best prediction of drag experts is that SAMPEX will reenter Earth atmosphere in September 2012. The earliest likely entry is August 2012 and the latest is December 2012.
