J2.4
The PECOS mission of small space weather satellites in the post DMSP era
O. De la Beaujardiere, Air Force Research Lab, Hanscom AFB, MA; and F. J. Rich, D. A. Cooke, J. Mozer, D. Ober, C. Huang, and L. C. Gentile
After the Nunn-McCurdy review and subsequent budget decisions, the space weather monitoring instruments known as the Space Environmental Sensor Suite are no longer part of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) mission. As a result, our ability to monitor and forecast space weather will be severely restricted in the post DMSP era (the launch of the final DMSP satellite is scheduled for 2012). The Air Force Research Laboratory is developing plans for new missions to fulfill future space environmental monitoring requirements and ensure the continuity of the DMSP mission. The Polar and Equatorial Comm/nav Outage Satellites (PECOS) mission calls for a series of small LEO satellites. Current plans include satellites on three sets of orbits. PECOS-High is a constellation of high-altitude (~ 800 km) sun-synchronous polar satellites carrying space weather instruments similar to those on DMSP. PECOS-Low is a constellation of low-altitude, polar satellites, on either circular or elliptical (~200 km perigee) orbits. Their primary objective is to characterize the thermosphere. PECOS-Equator is in an elliptical low-inclination orbit. It is the follow-on for the Communication / Navigation Outage Forecasting System, C/NOFS that is scheduled to fly in June 2008. Each satellite would carry a suite of instruments to forecast ionospheric and thermospheric parameters that affect communication, navigation, surveillance, and satellite drag. We present an overview of the proposed PECOS mission and instrumentation. Feedback from the ionospheric space weather community are sought to ensure that recent advances in space weather prediction, satellite instrumentation and launch options are appropriately exploited. Uploaded Presentation File(s):
Ober-AMS-Jan-22-08.ppt
Joint Session 2, Forecasting/products Enabled by Next Generation Instrumentation on GOES-R and Other Satellites-II
Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 3:30 PM-5:00 PM, R02-R03
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