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航天资产的主要危险。 了解它，最好是预测它对不断变化的太阳风驱动条件的响应，是磁层物理学的核心目标。 辐射带在任何特定时间的状况都是近地环境中对粒子起作用的吸收和损失过程之间微妙平衡的结果。 这两个问题目前都没有得到很好的理解。 该项目将使用来自NSF资助的CubeSat使命的新测量结果，该任务最近与数值建模一起进行，以确定高能电子损失率。 只有当损失率被准确地确定时，才有可能完全模拟辐射带动态。科罗拉多学生空间天气实验（CSSWE）是一个小型的，所谓的立方体卫星，卫星使命由美国国家科学基金会资助，并发射到一个高倾角，低空轨道作为美国宇航局的次要有效载荷？2012年9月，美国国家航空航天局推出了纳米卫星教育发射计划（ELaNa）。 整个CSSWE系统，包括其地面站，是由学生设计、建造、校准、测试、交付和操作的，由科罗拉多大学大气和空间物理实验室的教师和专业工程师提供指导和帮助。 卫星项目远远超过它？它的预期寿命超过了12个月，并收集了有关低地球轨道高能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利用这一独特的数据集，反过来，将有助于最大限度地提高这一已经非常成功的立方体卫星项目的科学投资回报。 在大多数情况下，科学研究是为研究生设计的，并将在PI和合作者的监督下由研究生进行。迄今为止，外辐射带电子的沉淀损失率尚未被量化和解决。目前发表的论文中的电子损失率是不稳定的，并且相差一个数量级。本研究的目标是量化降水损失及其对经度，L和MLT的依赖直接从数据与先进的建模，从而提供了一个定量的答案，研究界对这个重要的问题。 具体而言，这项工作将与美国航天局的货车艾伦探测器一起分析一年多来CSSWE数据的价值，以确定在逐渐衰减期间、快速损失期间和大增益期间进入电离层的损失率。在逐渐损失期间分析CSSWE数据将确定在这些期间有多少额外的散射发生以维持辐射带;在快速损失期间分析数据将确定有多少损失是由于散射到电离层而造成的，多少损失是由于向外径向扩散造成的;分析大增益期间的损耗将确定需要多少额外的CO2来产生所观察到的电子通量增益。 这种降水损失对辐射带电子的整体动态的影响将通过比较CSSWE的测量结果和相应的模拟结果与货车艾伦探测器在相同时间和位置的测量结果进行评估。