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

该项目将增加仍在运行的NSF FIREBIRD-II CubeSat使命的科学回报，并将从这一努力中吸取的经验教训用于扩大其他即将到来的CubeSat任务的目标。 立方体卫星是最近开发的经济型工具，由于其尺寸和成本低，只能携带少数通常使用现成组件制造的仪器。正因为如此，观测的设计必须严格地侧重于使命的具体科学目标。尽管存在这种限制，但NSF的CubeSat计划已经证明了自2010年该计划启动以来推出的CubeSat的高科学产出。 该项目的最终目标是促进多点网络和星座型活动的设计，这些活动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一些更复杂的问题。该项目的广泛影响是重大的。 该项目直接建立在美国国家科学基金会以前对火鸟-II使命的投资基础上，并将从美国国家科学基金会支持的这次和未来的立方体卫星飞行任务中获得最大的利益（科学和学生教育和培训方面）。该项目将通过更好地了解辐射带的来源和损失，有助于更好地了解“空间天气”，从而间接地有助于建立更强大的空间基础设施。 该项目要解决的一个关键挑战是整合跨平台的不同类型的测量，以解决超出单个任务最初范围的科学问题。对于火鸟-II使命，这转化为开发电子光谱等额外的数据产品，从而能够探索有关降水空间尺度的科学问题，协调的测量可以获得图像，但数据需要转化为与其他仪器可比的形式。 为了调查降水区域的空间尺度，FIREBIRD-II的电子观测可以与地面甚低频接收器结合使用，地面甚低频接收器能够探测由于降水辐射带电子引起的D区和E区电离，或者与雷达结合使用，雷达观测低能电子引起的电离层加热特征。 在这一发展过程中吸取的经验教训将应用于即将推出的AFRL DSX和VPM CubeSats，计划分别于2016年底和2017年初发射。将这些立方体卫星与FIREBIRD-II和其他现有的空间资产相结合，这些资产测量辐射带电子降水、地面闪电观测网络、雷达、甚低频接收器以及复杂的闪电哨声传播和消散模型，将开展一项活动，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.