SA018-05
Daedalus, a Candidate Mission for the Exploration of the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere: Mission Performance Demonstration of Multi-point Sampling Capability
Thursday, 10 December 2020: 10:50
Virtual
Theodore E Sarris1, Anita Taina Aikio2, Stephan C Buchert3, Mark A. Clilverd4, Iannis S Dandouras5, Eelco Doornbos6, Maxime Grandin7, Roderick A Heelis8, Nickolay Ivchenko9, Allison N Jaynes10, Therese Moretto11, Guram Kervalishvili12, David J Knudsen13, Anna Kotova5, David Malaspina14, Narges Ahmadi15, Aurelie Marchaudon5, Octav Marghitu16, Tomoko Matsuo17, Wojciech J. Miloch18, Nils Olsen19, Stelios Tourgaidis20, Minna Palmroth7, Robert F Pfaff Jr21, Alex Hoffman22, Claudia Stolle19, Elsayed R Talaat23, Christian Siemes24, Panagiotis Pirnaris25, Pekka T Verronen26, Dimitris Mpaloukidis25, Pieter N Visser27, Thanasis Balafoutis25 and The Daedalus Phase-0 Science Team, (1)Democritus University of Thrace, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Xanthi, Greece, (2)University of Oulu, Space Physics and Astronomy Research Unit, Oulu, Finland, (3)Swedish Inst of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden, (4)British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom, (5)IRAP, Toulouse, France, (6)Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Utrecht, Netherlands, (7)University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Helsinki, Finland, (8)University Texas Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States, (9)KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Space and Plasma Physics, School of Electrical Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden, (10)University of Colorado at Boulder, LASP, Boulder, CO, United States, (11)University of Bergen, Space Plasma Physics Group, Bergen, Norway, (12)GFZ Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, (13)University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, (14)University of Colorado, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department, Boulder, CO, United States, (15)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (16)Institute for Space Sciences, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania, (17)University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (18)University of Oslo, Department of Physics, Oslo, Norway, (19)Technical University of Denmark - Space, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, (20)Athena Research and Innovation Centre, Space Programmes Unit, Amarousio Athens, Greece, (21)NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (22)European Space Agency, European Space Research and Technology Centre, Noordwijk, Netherlands, (23)NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Silver Spring, MD, United States, (24)Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands, (25)Demokritus University of Thrace, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Xanthi, Greece, (26)Finnish Meteorological Inst., Helsinki, Finland, (27)Delft Univ Technology, Delft, Netherlands
Abstract:
The Daedalus mission has been proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in response to the call for ideas for the Earth Observation programme’s Earth Explorers. It was selected in 2018 as one of three candidates for Earth Explorer 10, and is currently undergoing a Phase-0 Science and Requirements Consolidation Study. The goal of the mission is to quantify key energetics, dynamics and chemistry processes in the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere (LTI), focusing in particular on processes related to ion-neutral coupling. Daedalus will perform in-situ measurements of plasma density and temperature, ion drift, neutral density and wind, ion and neutral composition, electric and magnetic fields and precipitating particles. The measurements will allow to quantify locally the processes by which energy is deposited in the upper atmosphere via Joule heating and energetic particle precipitation, estimates of which currently vary by orders of magnitude between models. Altitudes below 140 km are targeted, sampled from two satellites on elliptical orbits with separation in altitude while at perigee. In this talk, results from the performance demonstrations of the use of multi-point measurements from the Daedalus mission concept are presented, focusing on the derivation of local gradients, altitude profiles and height integrated Joule heating and conductivities from the simultaneous height-separated measurements.
