Analysis and Modeling of the Data from CubeSat: Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE)

CubeSat 数据的分析和建模：科罗拉多州学生空间天气实验 (CSSWE)

• 批准号: 1443749
• 负责人: Xinlin Li
• 金额: $ 34.5万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1443749&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Analysis; Modeling; Data; CubeSat; Colorado

The electron radiation environment around Earth is a major hazard to spaceflight assets. Understanding it, ideally to the point of predictive modeling of its response to changing solar wind driving conditions, is a central goal of magnetospheric physics. The condition in the radiation belts at any given time is the result of a delicate balance between energization and loss processes operating on the particles in the near-Earth environment. Neither of these is well understood at present. This project will use new measurements from a NSF-funded CubeSat mission that was recently carried out together with numerical modeling to determine the energetic electron loss rate. Only when the loss rate is accurately determined will it be possible to fully model the radiation belt dynamics. The Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE) is a tiny, so-called CubeSat, satellite mission funded by NSF and launched into a high inclination, low-altitude orbit as a secondary payload under NASA?s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program in September 2012. The entire CSSWE system, including its ground station, was designed, built, calibrated, tested, delivered, and operated by students, with mentoring and help provided by faculty and professional engineers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at University of Colorado. The satellite project far exceeded it?s expected life-time and has collected more than 12 months worth of high quality data on energetic electrons and protons in Low-Earth-Orbit. The advanced data analysis to be done under this award will continue the exploitation of this unique dataset and, in turn, will help to maximize the scientific return on investment of this already highly successful CubeSat project. For the most part, the scientific investigation is designed for and will be carried out by graduate students under the supervision of the PI and collaborators. To date, the precipitation loss rate of the outer radiation belt electrons has not been quantified and resolved. The electron loss rates in current published papers are erratic and diverge by an order of magnitude. The goal of this study is to quantify the precipitation losses and their dependence on longitude, L, and MLT directly from the data with advanced modeling, thus providing a quantitative answer to the research community on this important issue. Specifically, this effort will analyze over a year's worth of CSSWE data in conjunction with the NASA Van Allen Probes to determine the loss rates into the ionosphere during periods of gradual decay, during episodes of fast loss and during episodes of large gain. Analyzing CSSWE data during periods of gradual loss will determine how much additional energization occurs during such periods to maintain the radiation belts; analyzing the data during periods of fast loss will determine how much of the loss occurs by scattering into the ionosphere versus loss due to outward radial diffusion; analyzing the loss during periods of large gains will determine how much additional energization is needed to produce the observed gains in electron flux. The impact of such precipitation loss to the overall dynamics of radiation belt electrons will then be assessed by comparing the measurements of CSSWE and the corresponding modeling results with measurements from the Van Allen Probes at the same times and locations.

地球周围的电子辐射环境是太空飞行资产的主要危害。 理想情况下，理想的是，对其对变化太阳风驱动条件的反应的预测建模是磁层物理学的核心目标。 在任何给定时间，辐射带中的条件是能量和在近地环境中粒子上运行的损耗过程之间的微妙平衡的结果。 目前，这两个都没有很好地理解。 该项目将使用NSF资助的立方体任务的新测量结果，该任务最近与数值建模一起进行，以确定能量电子损耗率。 只有准确确定损耗率时，才有可能对辐射带动力学进行完全模拟。科罗拉多州学生太空天气实验（CSSWE）是由NSF资助的卫星任务，由NSF资助，并进入高倾斜度，低空轨道，作为NASA的次要有效载荷，该载荷是NASA的二次有效载荷，该纳萨氏菌（Elana）于2012年9月在NANOSATELLITES（ELANA）的教育启动下进行了启动。学生，由科罗拉多大学大气与太空物理实验室的教师和专业工程师提供的指导和帮助。 卫星项目远远超过了预期的终身时间，并且在低地球轨道上收集了超过12个月的高质量电子和质子的高质量数据。 根据该奖项进行的高级数据分析将继续剥削这个独特的数据集，进而将有助于最大程度地提高这个已经非常成功的Cubesat项目的科学投资回报率。 在大多数情况下，科学研究是为PI和合作者的监督而设计的，并将由研究生进行。迄今为止，尚未量化和解决外部辐射带电子的降水损失率。当前已发表的论文中的电子损失率是不稳定的，并且会差异数量级。这项研究的目的是直接从具有先进建模的数据中量化降水损失及其对经度，L和MLT的依赖，从而为研究界提供了有关这一重要问题的定量答案。 具体而言，这项工作将与NASA Van Allen探针结合使用一年多的CSSWE数据，以确定在逐渐衰减期间，快速损失发作和大幅增长期间，在逐渐衰减期间的损失率。在逐渐损失期间分析CSSWE数据将决定在此类时期内发生多少额外的能量，以维持辐射带。在快速损失期间分析数据将决定通过散射到电离层与外向径向扩散引起的损失来确定损失发生了多少；分析大幅收益期间的损失将决定产生观测到的电子通量中的增益需要多少额外的能量。 然后，将通过比较CSSWE的测量值和相应的建模结果与来自同一时间和位置的Van Allen探针的测量结果来评估这种降水损失对辐射带电子总体动力学的影响。