Challenges in Understanding the Upper Atmosphere

The upper atmosphere is a complicated system that exhibits complex behavior. The system response clearly depends on preconditioning and exhibits global coupling. One of the challenges we face is that of making the measurements that are required to either predict the future behavior of the upper atmosphere or to monitor the upper atmosphere extensively enough that we can predict the future or current behavior. In this paper we discuss the challenges of space mission architecture and the transformation of data into actionable knowledge. There are a number of new developments that may aid in the development of a new understanding: these include new isntrument concepts, the development of cubesats, and knowledge management technologies.