GEM: Extending the Capabilities of CubeSats for Measuring Radiation Belt Precipitation

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This project will increase the science return from the still operating NSF FIREBIRD-II CubeSat mission and apply lessons learned from this effort to broaden the objectives of other upcoming CubeSat missions. CubeSats are recently developed economical tools that because of their size and low cost can carry aloft only a few instruments generally built using off-the-shelf components. Because of this, observations must be designed to narrowly focus on the specific science objectives of the mission. Despite this limitation, NSF's CubeSat program has demonstrated a high scientific output from CubeSats launched since the initiation of this program in 2010. The ultimate goal of this project is to contribute to the design of multipoint networks and constellation-type campaigns that use simpler payloads but combined can be targeted to attack some of the more complex problems in the Geospace environment and related fields. The broader impacts of this project are significant. The project builds directly on previous NSF investment in the FIREBIRD-II mission, and will maximize the benefits (both scientific and in terms of student education and training) from this and future CubeSat missions supported by NSF. The project will likely contribute to a better understanding of 'space weather' by better understanding the radiation belt sources and losses and thus indirectly contribute to more robust space infrastructure. A key challenge to be addressed in this project is in integrating disparate types of measurements across platforms to address scientific problems that are beyond the original scope of the individual missions. For the FIREBIRD-II mission, this translates into the development of additional data products such as electron spectra that enable exploring science questions about the spatial scale of precipitation where coordinated measurements can get at the picture but the data needs to be transformed into forms that are comparable to other instruments. To investigate the spatial scales of precipitation regions, electron observations by FIREBIRD-II can, for example, be combined with ground-based VLF receivers capable of detecting D- and E-region ionization due to precipitating radiation belt electrons or radars that observe the associated ionospheric heating signatures from lower energy electrons. The lessons learned in this development will be applied to the upcoming AFRL DSX and VPM CubeSats scheduled for launch in the end of 2016 and early 2017, respectively. Combining these CubeSats with FIREBIRD-II and other existing space assets that measure radiation belt electron precipitation, lightning observing networks on the ground, radars, VLF receivers, and a sophisticated model of lightning whistler propagation and dissipation, a campaign will be developed to study for the first time the radiation belt - lightning interactions from the lower atmosphere to the ionosphere to space and observe the resulting precipitation.