Constellation Strategies of the THEMIS Mission From 2006 Through 2008 and Beyond

Details Constellation Strategies of the THEMIS Mission From 2006 Through 2008 and Beyond Constellation Strategies of the THEMIS Mission From 2006 Through 2008 and Beyond

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsm32a1132f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SM32A-1132

Physics

2700 Magnetospheric Physics, 2704 Auroral Phenomena (2407), 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

The Constellation class mission dedicated to the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) is a new NASA Medium Class Explorer (MIDEX) mission to be launched in 2006. Primarily, THEMIS will monitor the onset and evolution of the macroscale substorm instability. Additionally, the production of energetic electrons during storm time in the radiation belts, and the control of the solar wind - magnetosphere coupling by upstream processes at the dayside magnetopause will be investigated. Thus, THEMIS will significantly contribute to our understanding of the solar wind - magnetosphere energy coupling and mass transport. THEMIS combines a fleet of 5 small probes equipped to measure particles and fields together with a set of about 20 ground observatories capable to monitor auroral breakups aligned over Northern America. In order to time and localize substorm onsets THEMIS utilizes conjunctions between the probes on multiple period, near-equatorial orbits with apogees between 10 and 30 Re. These nightside conjunctions will occur near the substorm meridian at times of local midnight of the ground observatories. Three inner probes ( ˜1day period) monitor current disruption and two outer probes ( ˜2day and ˜4day periods) monitor lobe flux dissipation. To maintain high recurrence of conjunctions the outer orbits are actively adjusted. Active orbit maintenance will also be used to rearrange the inner probes for dayside observations. In our presentation, we will give a detailed overview of the orbit strategy, which is primarily driven by the scientific goals of the mission but also follows a concept of cost efficiency. We will also evaluate the potential scientific return from the orbit strategy using high-fidelity orbit prediction and common magnetospheric models.

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