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

该项目将增加仍在运行的美国国家科学基金会火鸟- ii立方体卫星任务的科学回报，并应用从这次努力中吸取的经验教训，以扩大其他即将到来的立方体卫星任务的目标。立方体卫星是最近发展起来的经济工具，由于它们的尺寸和低成本，只能携带一些通常使用现成组件制造的仪器。正因为如此，观测的设计必须局限于任务的特定科学目标。尽管存在这些限制，但自2010年启动该计划以来，美国国家科学基金会的立方体卫星计划已经证明了立方体卫星的高科学产出。该项目的最终目标是为多点网络和星座型战役的设计做出贡献，这些战役使用更简单的有效载荷，但结合起来可以有针对性地攻击地球空间环境和相关领域中的一些更复杂的问题。这个项目的广泛影响是重大的。该项目直接建立在NSF之前对FIREBIRD-II任务的投资基础上，并将从NSF支持的这次和未来的立方体卫星任务中获得最大的利益（包括科学和学生教育和培训方面）。通过更好地了解辐射带的来源和损失，该项目可能有助于更好地了解“空间天气”，从而间接有助于建立更强大的空间基础设施。该项目需要解决的一个关键挑战是整合不同类型的跨平台测量，以解决超出单个任务原始范围的科学问题。对于FIREBIRD-II任务，这转化为开发额外的数据产品，如电子能谱，使探索有关降水空间尺度的科学问题成为可能，其中协调测量可以获得图像，但数据需要转换为与其他仪器相媲美的形式。例如，为了研究降水区域的空间尺度，FIREBIRD-II的电子观测可以与地基VLF接收器相结合，这些VLF接收器能够探测到由于辐射带电子沉降引起的D区和e区电离，或者与雷达相结合，这些雷达可以观测到来自较低能量电子的相关电离层加热特征。此次开发的经验教训将应用于即将于2016年底和2017年初分别发射的AFRL DSX和VPM CubeSats。将这些立方体卫星与FIREBIRD-II和其他现有的测量辐射带电子降水的空间资产、地面闪电观测网络、雷达、VLF接收器以及一个复杂的闪电哨声传播和消散模型相结合，将首次研究从低层大气到电离层再到空间的辐射带-闪电相互作用，并观测由此产生的降水。

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.