COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
The FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 Satellite Mission: Expanding the
Observational Capabilities for the Space Weather Community
Space Weather Workshop Westminster, CO
April 19, 2018
John J. Braun Acknowledgements: NOAA, USAF, NSPO, JPL, UTD, SRI,
UCAR, AFRL, Aerospace Corporation
COSMIC Program
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
COSMIC-2A Partners
Payloads: NASA JPL (BRE/MOOG), UTD (BATC), AFRL (SRI, SMI)
Data Processing Center and Mission Operations: UCAR
Science Support: UCAR, Aerospace Corporation, NASA JPL, UTD, AFRL, Boston College (soon)
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Lead Taiwan Agency Spacecraft
Command & Control
Lead US Agency Ground sites
TGRS ground processing
Payloads Launch
RF Beacon ground system RF Beacon/IVM ground
processing
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
COSMIC-2 Spacecraft
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IVM TGRS POD Antenna
TGRS RO Antenna
RF Beacon Antenna
The COSMIC-2 spacecraft have been developed by Surrey Satellite Technologies Limited (SSTL) Under Contract to Taiwan’s National Space Organization
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
Spacecraft Integration…
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• Spacecraft integration conducted in UK and Taiwan
• Six S/Cs integrated in staggered parallel fashion
• Primary integration completed in late 2016
– Ready for launch, but…
– Activities for risk reduction and performance improvement continue.
Above: An NSPO technician makes some minor harness adjustments to FM-2, ca. mid 2015 (image courtesy NSPO) Left: The primary instrument (TGRS receiver) during flatsat integration in Guildford, Surrey
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
… and Test
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• Environmental test campaign: – Vibration
– Thermal-vacuum (TVAC)
– Acoustic (FM-3 only)
– EMI/EMC
• Operations testing: – “End-to-end” test
(SEET, NEET)
– S/C and payload commanding test, ground segment in the loop
– TGRS software upload tests
Clockwise from top left: PFM/FM-1 on vibration test stand ca. Fall 2014 (Airbus D&S, Stevenage, UK); FM-3 EMI testing in anechoic chamber ca. Fall 2017 (NSPO, Hsinchu, Taiwan); FM-3 acoustic test ca. Summer 2016 (NSPO)
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
Launch and Deployment
• COSMIC-2 is the co-primary payload on the
STP-2 mission
• Falcon Heavy vehicle out of Cape Canaveral
• Initial altitude: 700 km
• Final altitude: 520 km achieved w/ on-
board propulsion
• Differential orbit precession separates the
orbit planes, resulting in a uniformly spaced
constellation (~18 months)
• Current ILC is June 13, 2018
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COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
TGRS Description
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• Description – Trig Radio Occultation receiver tracks GNSS
signals across Earth’s limb – TGRS is the primary instrument on COSMIC-2. – Provides neutral atmosphere and space weather
data for global observational models and science users.
– Will track GPS and GLONASS signals • TGRS Components
– The TGRS instrument contains a single GNSS receiver, two Precise Orbit Determination (POD) antennas, and two Radio Occultation (RO) limb antennas.
– The two POD antennas will be used to collect ionosphere data.
• Data above spacecraft altitude is classified as an arc
• Data from spacecraft altitude to 80 km is classified as an occultation
• Heritage – Trig receiver designed by JPL. – JPL has previously provided blackjack heritage
instrumentation on multiple missions (COSMIC, C/NOFS, GRACE, etc)
– Built by Moog/Broadreach Engineering
Fore RO Antenna (Troposphere)
Aft RO Antenna (Troposphere)
TriG GNSS Receiver
Fore POD Antenna
(Ionosphere)
Aft POD Antenna (Ionosphere)
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
TGRS Space Weather Measurements
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24-Hour LOS Limb TEC Coverage
0 20 40 600
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
CA
SN
R (
Volts/V
olt)
time (sec)
0 20 40 600
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
CA
SN
R (
Volts/V
olt)
time (sec)
• TGRS TEC • GPS and GLONASS • TEC occultation data will provide data from
S/C altitude to 80 km altitude • TEC arc data will provide data above S/C
altitude • TGRS will slightly prioritize occultations over
arcs
• TGRS Scintillation • GPS and GLONASS • Will collect high rate phase and amplitude
data for entire occultation when on-board S4 measurement exceeds a specified threshold.
• Will allow for detailed investigation of scintillation (S4 and σφ)
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) Heritage
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• 2-Sensor IVM Heritage
– Successful deployment of multiple IVM-type instruments
– Missions include AE, DE, DMSP, ROCSAT, C/NOFS, SSAEM, ICON
ROCSAT IPEI (1999-2004)
CINDI C/NOFS IVM (2008-2015)
COSMIC-2 IVM
• Long-Duration Mission
• Robust Radiation Tolerant Design
• High Sensitivity
• Low Noise
University of Texas at Dallas William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences
Science Team: Rod Heelis, Russell Stoneback Engineering Team: Mark Mankey, Michael Perdue, Matthew Depew, Zac Morgan, Larry Harmon, Ron Lippincott
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
IVM Measurements for Operations
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• Provide nighttime and near terminator drifts as input to equatorial scintillation prediction algorithms.
• Provide night/day specification of low latitude (±30° magnetic) plasma drifts as inputs to assimilative models for improvement of ionospheric specification.
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
RF Beacon Sensor
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• Ground-based receivers measure RF Beacon signals (amplitude & phase) to determine scintillation environment
– 400, 965, 2200 MHz signals
• Ancillary two-frequency TEC measurements provide data for ionospheric assimilative models
• Coupling North-South morphology of irregularity regions with East-West geometry of COSMIC-2 (Equatorial) orbit enables better scintillation region mapping (relative to polar orbits)
• Payload team: AFRL, SRI, SMI
Beacon Data
30N
0
30S
Potential RF Beacon Ground Sites
Beacon
Electronics Unit
Antenna
Unit RF Beacon drawing/picture courtesy SRI
Graphic courtesy AFRL
Graphic courtesy AFRL
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
COSMIC-2 Product Requirements
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Product Description Requirement Sample Rate
TGRS TEC arcs # of soundings/overhead arcs/day
1220/COSMIC-2 satellite (before QC)
1Hz
Absolute TEC 3 TECU
Relative TEC 0.3 TECU
TGRS Scintillation S4/σφ measurement 0.1/0.1 radians 10 sec onboard S4 100 Hz (phase and amplitude)
IVM In-situ ion density 5% 1 Hz
In-situ Ion temperature ±10 % 1 Hz
In-track ion drift ±10 m/s 1 Hz
Cross-track ion drift ±5 m/s 4 Hz
Constituent Mass Fraction ±5 %
1 Hz
RF Beacon Scintillation Regional S4/σφ measurement 0.1/0.1 radians 1 Hz
RF Beacon TEC Regional relative TEC 0.01 TECU 1 Hz
TGRS & IVM Latency Median data latency 30 min
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
Constellation Capabilities
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• Six orbital planes will observe longitude variations with ~30° spacing at 12 local times. • Multiple observation types including GNSS limb and overhead TEC (TGRS), in-situ data
(IVM), and regional ground TEC (RFB) provide exceptional low latitude coverage for data assimilation and analysis.
• Will provide data to resolve large, medium, and small scale ionospheric structure. • Will support tidal decomposition and daily variability of electric fields, field-aligned
plasma drifts and plasma density in topside ionosphere.
24-Hour LOS Limb TEC Coverage
COSMIC-2 Space Weather Update
Summary
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• COSMIC-2A is an equatorial mission of six spacecraft that will provide ionospheric sampling across the local day.
• Payload instruments: – TGRS (TEC and scintillation)
– IVM (in-situ ionosphere sampling of ion density, drift, temperature, and mass fraction)
– RFB (regional TEC and scintillation)
• Equatorial coverage will support research related to large, medium and small scale processes.
• Launch in 2018