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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) is an Earth-orbiting mission that launched August 30, 2012, and is the latest science mission in NASA’s Living with a Star Program. The RBSP mission will investigate, characterize and understand the physical dynamics of the radiation belts, as well as the...
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... The PERSEUS mechanical design is comparable to that of Van Allen Probes (Kirby et al. 2013), maximizing packaging and structural efficiency while ensuring a central center of gravity and proper inertias for a spin-stabilized flight system. Although compact, the structural design allows for significant flexibility in the movement of boxes for spin balancing. ...
The Plasma Environment, Radiation, Structure, and Evolution of the Uranian System (PERSEUS) mission concept defines the feasibility and potential scope of a dedicated, standalone Heliophysics orbiter mission to study multiple space physics science objectives at Uranus. Uranus’s complex and dynamic magnetosphere presents a unique laboratory to study magnetospheric physics as well as its coupling to the solar wind and the planet’s atmosphere, satellites, and rings. From the planet’s tilted and offset, rapidly-rotating non-dipolar magnetic field to its seasonally-extreme interactions with the solar wind to its unexpectedly intense electron radiation belts, Uranus hosts a range of outstanding and compelling mysteries relevant to the space physics community. While the exploration of planets other than Earth has largely fallen within the purview of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, many targets, like Uranus, also hold immense scientific value and interest to NASA’s Heliophysics Division. Exploring and understanding Uranus’s magnetosphere is critical to make fundamental gains in magnetospheric physics and the understanding of potential exoplanetary systems and to test the validity of our knowledge of magnetospheric dynamics, moon-magnetosphere interactions, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, and solar wind-planetary coupling. The PERSEUS mission concept study, currently at Concept Maturity Level (CML) 4, comprises a feasible payload that provides closure to a range of space physics science objectives in a reliable and mature spacecraft and mission design architecture. The mission is able to close using only a single Mod-1 Next-Generation Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (NG-RTG) by leveraging a concept of operations that relies of a significant hibernation mode for a large portion of its 22-day orbit.
... The Van Allen Probes (RBSP) were launched in 2012 and had two probes with a separation ranging from ∼0.1 to 5 R E (Mauk et al., 2012). They were in an elliptical orbit with an apogee of ∼6 R E (Kirby et al., 2012). Our primary instrument used on Van Allen Probes was the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) Claudepierre et al., 2021). ...
In this study, we examine particle energization and injections that show energetic electron enhancements at both MMS in the magnetotail and Van Allen Probes in the inner magnetosphere. Observing injections along with a corresponding flow burst allows us to better understand injections overall. Searching for suitable events, we found that only a small number of events at MMS had corresponding injections that penetrated far enough into the inner magnetosphere to observe with Van Allen Probes. With the four suitable events we did find, we compared the energy spectra at the two spacecraft and mapped the boundary of where the injection entered the inner magnetosphere. We found that, among these injections in the inner magnetosphere, the electron flux did not increase above ∼400 keV, similar to previous results, but the corresponding signatures in the tail observed increased fluxes at 600 keV or higher. There does not appear to be a comparable flux increase at Van Allen Probes and MMS for a given event. None of our injections included ion enhancements at Van Allen Probes, but one included an ion injection at geosynchronous orbit in the GOES spacecraft. All of our injections were dispersed at Van Allen Probes, and we were therefore able to map an estimate of the injection boundary. All of the injections occurred in the premidnight sector. Although we found some events where particle energizations in the tail are accompanied by inner magnetospheric injections, we do not find a statistical link between the two.
... Science operations for this mission were broken into multiple levels that included command and control of the spacecraft and instruments; receipt of telemetry; processing of telemetry into higher level data products. The Mission Operations Center (MOC) as described in Kirby et al. (2013), managed communications between the ground segment and each spacecraft; handled spacecraft operations; and provided detailed ephemerid of the spacecraft for each of the instrument teams. The overall configuration of the Van Allen Probes operations was architected using a "bent-pipe" system where the MOC handled all elements related to the spacecraft and the instrument Science Operation Centers (SOC) handled all aspect of instrument operations. ...
The Van Allen Probes mission operations materialized through a distributed model in which operational responsibility was divided between the Mission Operations Center (MOC) and separate instrument specific SOCs. The sole MOC handled all aspects of telemetering and receiving tasks as well as certain scientifically relevant ancillary tasks. Each instrument science team developed individual instrument specific SOCs proficient in unique capabilities in support of science data acquisition, data processing, instrument performance, and tools for the instrument team scientists. In parallel activities, project scientists took on the task of providing a significant modeling tool base usable by the instrument science teams and the larger scientific community. With a mission as complex as Van Allen Probes, scientific inquiry occurred due to constant and significant collaboration between the SOCs and in concert with the project science team. Planned cross-instrument coordinated observations resulted in critical discoveries during the seven-year mission. Instrument cross-calibration activities elucidated a more seamless set of data products. Specific topics include post-launch changes and enhancements to the SOCs, discussion of coordination activities between the SOCs, SOC specific analysis software, modeling software provided by the Van Allen Probes project, and a section on lessons learned. One of the most significant lessons learned was the importance of the original decision to implement individual team SOCs providing timely and well-documented instrument data for the NASA Van Allen Probes Mission scientists and the larger magnetospheric and radiation belt scientific community.
... Electron radiation belts representation with the L * parameter and the equatorial pitch angle αeq, in addition to the Van Allen probes orbit, adapted from[34]. ...
We construct a new nonlinear finite volume (FV) scheme for highly anisotropic diffusion equations, that satisfies the discrete minimum-maximum principle. The construction relies on the linearized scheme satisfying less restrictive monotonicity conditions than those of an M-matrix, based on a weakly regular matrix splitting and using the Cartesian structure of the mesh (extension to quadrilateral meshes is also possible). The resulting scheme, obtained by expressing fluxes as nonlinear combinations of linear fluxes, has a larger stencil than other nonlinear positivity preserving or minimum-maximum principle preserving schemes. Its larger “linearized” stencil, closer to the actual complete stencil (that includes unknowns appearing in the convex combination coefficients), enables a faster convergence of the Picard iterations used to compute the solution of the scheme. Steady state dimensionless numerical tests as well as simulations of the highly anisotropic diffusion in electron radiation belts show a second order of convergence of the new scheme and confirm its computational efficiency compared to usual nonlinear FV schemes.
... Launched in August 2012, the Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes) mission includes two identical observatories flying in highly elliptical orbits around the Earth with 1.1 E 5.8 E E R and inclination 10 E (Baker et al., 2012;Mauk et al., 2012). Van Allen Probe-A and Van Allen Probe-B flies through different parts of the radiation belts at the same time, the data returned from the instruments can be combined to provide information about how the environment changes in both space and time (Kirby et al., 2012). Each Van Allen Probes observatory carries four suites, of which we have used Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite-REPT (Stratton et al., 2012). ...
We present multi‐spacecraft observations of the proton fluxes spanning from 1.5 to 433 MeV for the largest solar proton event of solar cycle 24, i.e., September 7 and 10, 2017. In September 2017, M5.5 flare on September 4, X9.3 flare on September 6 and X8.2 flare on September 10 gave rise to solar proton event when observed by near‐Earth spacecrafts. On September 7 and September 10, 2017, a strong enhancement in the proton intensities was observed by Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and WIND at L1 and Van Allen Probes, GOES‐15 and POES‐19 in the Earth's inner magnetosphere. Below geosynchronous orbit, Van Allen Probes and POES‐19 show that no significant proton flux was observed with energies ≤25 MeV on September 4, while the fluxes peaked 3 to 7‐times during September 7 and by ∼25 times during the third proton flux event on September 10, 2017. Van Allen Probe‐A observation shows that the closest distance that solar proton fluxes could approach the Earth is L∼4.4 for 102.6 MeV energies on 10th September 2017, while lower energy protons i.e., 25 MeV are observed deep up to L∼3.4 on 11th September 2017. POES‐19 observations show that there is no particular magnetic local time (MLT) dependence of the solar proton flux and is symmetric everywhere at high and low latitudes. The measurements from multiple spacecrafts located in the different regions of the Earth's magnetosphere show that the increased level of solar proton flux population persisted for ∼2 days. Thus, we quantify the temporal flux variability in terms of L‐value, energy and MLT.
... Electron radiation belts representation with the L * parameter and the equatorial pitch angle αeq, in addition to the Van Allen probes orbit, adapted from[31]. ...
We construct a new nonlinear finite volume (FV) scheme for highly anisotropic diffusion equations, that satisfies the discrete minimum-maximum principle. The construction relies on the linearized scheme satisfying less restrictive monotonicity conditions than those of an M-matrix, based on a weakly regular matrix splitting and using the Cartesian structure of the mesh (extension to quadrilateral meshes is also possible). The resulting scheme, obtained by expressing fluxes as nonlinear combinations of linear fluxes, has a larger stencil than other nonlinear positivity preserving or minimum-maximum principle preserving schemes. Its larger "linearized" stencil, closer to the actual complete stencil (that includes unknowns appearing in the convex combination coefficients), enables a faster convergence of the Picard iterations used to compute the solution of the scheme. Steady state dimensionless numerical tests as well as simulations of the highly anisotropic diffusion in electron radiation belts show a second order of convergence of the new scheme and confirm its computational efficiency compared to usual nonlinear FV schemes.
... propagate along the geomagnetic field line and cause aurora and ionization of the atmosphere, as shown inFig. 10b.During the VarSITI program, two major satellite projects had been in actively operated to investigate the inner magnetosphere, i.e., Van Allen Probes (also called as Radiation Belt Storm Probes) (2012-2019,Kirby et al. 2013) and Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG, also called as Arase) (2016-,Miyoshi et al. 2018). The Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) satellites(2007( -, Angelopoulos 2008 have also been in operation throughout the VarSITI Program, and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) satellites( -, Burch et al. 2016) was newly launched. ...
The Sun is a variable active-dynamo star, emitting radiation in all wavelengths and solar-wind plasma to the interplanetary space. The Earth is immersed in this radiation and solar wind, showing various responses in geospace and atmosphere. This Sun–Earth connection variates in time scales from milli-seconds to millennia and beyond. The solar activity, which has a ~11-year periodicity, is gradually declining in recent three solar cycles, suggesting a possibility of a grand minimum in near future. VarSITI—variability of the Sun and its terrestrial impact—was the 5-year program of the scientific committee on solar-terrestrial physics (SCOSTEP) in 2014–2018, focusing on this variability of the Sun and its consequences on the Earth. This paper reviews some background of SCOSTEP and its past programs, achievements of the 5-year VarSITI program, and remaining outstanding questions after VarSITI.
... Unfortunately, the satellites have no onboard high-precision time signal source such as GPS receivers, and thus the timestamps in the EMFISIS waveform data will have their own uncertainty with regard to actual UTC. The original EMFISIS design requirement called for a postprocessing accuracy of 50 ms (see, e.g., Kirby et al., 2013; note that the latter document contains a couple of erroneous values regarding the components of timing, as confirmed by the authors. Correct values can be found in Kirby et al., 2012.). ...
Continuous burst mode very low frequency (VLF) measurements were recorded on the Van Allen Probes satellites and are analyzed to detect pulses from the Russian Alpha (RSDN-20) ground-based navigational system between January and March 2016. Based on the wave characteristics of these pulses and on the position of the spacecraft, the signals propagated mostly in ducted mode in the plasmasphere. Knowledge of the propagation path allowed us to carry out a monochromatic wave propagation inversion to obtain plasmaspheric electron densities. We compared the obtained densities with independent in situ measurements on the spacecraft. The results show good agreement, validating our inversion process. This contributes to validating the field-aligned density profile model routinely used in the inversion of whistlers detected on the ground. Furthermore, our method can provide electron densities at regimes where no alternative measurements are available on the spacecraft. This raises the possibility of using this method as an additional tool to measure and monitor plasmaspheric electron densities.
... The original EMFISIS design requirement called for a post-processing accuracy of 50 ms (see e.g. Kirby et al. (2013); note that the latter document contain some erroneous values regarding the components of timing, as confirmed by the authors. Correct values can be found in Kirby et al. (2012).). ...
Continuous burst mode VLF measurements were recorded on the RBSP/Van Allen Probes satellites and are analyzed to detect pulses from the Russian Alpha (RSDN-20) ground-based navigational system. Based on the wave characteristics of these pulses and on the position of the spacecraft, the signals propagated mostly in ducted mode in the plasmasphere. Knowledge of the propagation path allowed us to carry out a monochromatic wave propagation inversion to obtain plasmaspheric electron densities. We compared the obtained densities with independent in-situ measurements on the spacecraft. The results show good agreement, validating our inversion process. This contributes to validating the field-aligned density profile model routinely used in the inversion of whistlers detected on the ground. Furthermore, our method can provide electron densities at regimes where no alternative measurements are available on the spacecraft. This raises the possibility of using this method as an additional tool to measure and monitor plasmaspheric electron densities.
... The Van Allen Probes satellites, or the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, offer us another way to analyze spacecraft charging. A pair of twin probes launched in 2012 into an approximately 9 h elliptical orbit, the Van Allen Probes contain two instruments which provide the opportunity to study spacecraft charging on a conducting spacecraft within geosynchronous orbit [Mauk et al., 2014;Kirby et al., 2014]. ...
... These times of negative charging in sunlight present a unique situation. Extreme care was taken on the Van Allen Probes satellites to ensure a conducting spacecraft, and previous studies have shown, based on model results, that significant negative spacecraft charging should not occur in sunlight on a conducting spacecraft [Davis et al., 2012;Kirby et al., 2014]. In particular, we see from Figure 3 in the postmidnight sector at L > 4, there are a large number of negative spacecraft charging events, where hot electrons begin to gradient curvature drift eastward as they enter from the plasma sheet. ...
Using the Helium Oxygen Proton Electron (HOPE) and Electric Field and Waves (EFW) instruments from the Van Allen Probes, we explored the relationship between electron energy fluxes in the eV and keV ranges and spacecraft surface charging. We present statistical results on spacecraft charging within geosynchronous orbit by L and MLT. An algorithm to extract the H+ charging line in the HOPE instrument data was developed to better explore intense charging events. Also, this study explored how spacecraft potential relates to electron number density, electron pressure, electron temperature, thermal electron current, and low energy ion density between 1-210 eV. It is demonstrated that it is imperative to use both EFW potential measurements and the HOPE instrument ion charging line for examining times of extreme spacecraft charging of the Van Allen Probes. The results of this study show that elevated electron energy fluxes and high electron pressures are present during times of spacecraft charging but these same conditions may also occur during non-charging times. We also show non-eclipse significant negative charging events on the Van Allen Probes.
