scholarly journals CASPA-ADM: a mission concept for observing thermospheric mass density

Author(s):  
Christian Siemes ◽  
Stephen Maddox ◽  
Olivier Carraz ◽  
Trevor Cross ◽  
Steven George ◽  
...  

AbstractCold Atom technology has undergone rapid development in recent years and has been demonstrated in space in the form of cold atom scientific experiments and technology demonstrators, but has so far not been used as the fundamental sensor technology in a science mission. The European Space Agency therefore funded a 7-month project to define the CASPA-ADM mission concept, which serves to demonstrate cold-atom interferometer (CAI) accelerometer technology in space. To make the mission concept useful beyond the technology demonstration, it aims at providing observations of thermosphere mass density in the altitude region of 300–400 km, which is presently not well covered with observations by other missions. The goal for the accuracy of the thermosphere density observations is 1% of the signal, which will enable the study of gas–surface interactions as well as the observation of atmospheric waves. To reach this accuracy, the CAI accelerometer is complemented with a neutral mass spectrometer, ram wind sensor, and a star sensor. The neutral mass spectrometer data is considered valuable on its own since the last measurements of atmospheric composition and temperature in the targeted altitude range date back to 1980s. A multi-frequency GNSS receiver provides not only precise positions, but also thermosphere density observations with a lower resolution along the orbit, which can be used to validate the CAI accelerometer measurements. In this paper, we provide an overview of the mission concept and its objectives, the orbit selection, and derive first requirements for the scientific payload.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Siemes ◽  
Stephen Maddox ◽  
Olivier Carraz ◽  
Trevor Cross ◽  
Steven George ◽  
...  

<p>The objective of the Cold Atom Space Payload Atmospheric Drag Mission (CASPA-ADM) study, which is supported by ESA, is to develop a mission concept for observing thermospheric mass density with an accelerometer based on Cold Atom Interferometry (CAI) as a technology demonstrator. CAI technology has undergone rapid development in the recent years and experimental systems have been flown on the International Space Station and in sounding rockets for CAI research purposes.  Despite this, CAI has not yet been used as the fundamental sensor technology in a science mission, so CASPA-ADM would be a significant advancement.  CAI relies on cooling a vapour of atoms in a vacuum chamber close to absolute zero temperature using lasers and using the properties of the atoms to form a matter-wave interferometer that is extremely sensitive to accelerations. A key advantage over classical accelerometers is that the CAI measurements are not affected by any biases or scale factors. Transforming acceleration measurements to thermospheric density observations requires also measurements of the atmospheric composition, temperature, and wind. For that purpose, a neutral mass spectrometer and a wind sensor will be part of the scientific payload. For validation, the payload will include a multi-frequency GNSS receiver that allows to infer non-gravitational acceleration observations, albeit at much lower resolution along the orbit. All of these instruments will be built into a 16U CubeSat, which will be launched into an inclined orbit at an altitude of initially 400 km to achieve a fast sampling of local times and address the present observational gaps in thermosphere density observations. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the mission objectives, explain the mission concept, and report the results from the ESA study.</p>


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1057-1064
Author(s):  
P.R. Mahaffy ◽  
S.K. Atreya ◽  
H.B. Niemann ◽  
T.C. Owen

AbstractInsights into both the detailed composition of Jupiter’s atmosphere and unexpected local meteorological phenomena were revealed by in-situ measurements from the Galileo Probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer taken on December 7, 1995. Measurements of the neutral atmospheric composition from a pressure of 0.5 bar to approximately 21 bar revealed the mixing ratios of the major species helium and hydrogen as well as numerous minor constituents including methane, water, ammonia, ethane, ethylene, propane, hydrogen sulfide, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon. This instrument measured the isotope ratios3He/4He, D/H, and13C/12C as well as the isotopes of neon, argon, krypton, and xenon. A summary is given of progress that has been made in refining preliminary estimates of the abundances of condensable volatiles and noble gases as a result of an ongoing laboratory study using a nearly identical engineering unit. The depletion of simple condensable species to depths well below their expected condensation levels is explained by a local downdraft in the region of the probe entry. The mass spectrometer data suggests that different species may recover at different depths and this may be due to lateral mixing of Jovian air.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (4) ◽  
pp. 4734-4740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac R H G Schroeder ◽  
Kathrin Altwegg ◽  
Hans Balsiger ◽  
Jean-Jacques Berthelier ◽  
Michael R Combi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The nucleus of the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko was discovered to be bi-lobate in shape when the European Space Agency spacecraft Rosetta first approached it in 2014 July. The bi-lobate structure of the cometary nucleus has led to much discussion regarding the possible manner of its formation and on how the composition of each lobe might compare with that of the other. During its two-year-long mission from 2014 to 2016, Rosetta remained in close proximity to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, studying its coma and nucleus in situ. Based on lobe-specific measurements of HDO and H2O performed with the ROSINA Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) on board Rosetta, the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratios in water from the two lobes can be compared. No appreciable difference was observed, suggesting that both lobes formed in the same region and are homogeneous in their D/H ratios.


2019 ◽  
Vol 630 ◽  
pp. A29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac R. H. G. Schroeder I ◽  
Kathrin Altwegg ◽  
Hans Balsiger ◽  
Jean-Jacques Berthelier ◽  
Johan De Keyser ◽  
...  

The European Space Agency spacecraft Rosetta accompanied the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for over 2 yr along its trajectory through the inner solar system. Between 2014 and 2016, it performed almost continuous in situ measurements of the comet’s gaseous atmosphere in close proximity to its nucleus. In this study, the 16O/18O ratio of H2O in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as measured by the ROSINA DFMS mass spectrometer onboard Rosetta, was determined from the ratio of H216O/H218O and 16OH/18OH. The value of 445 ± 35 represents an ~11% enrichment of 18O compared with the terrestrial ratio of 498.7 ± 0.1. This cometary value is consistent with the comet containing primordial water, in accordance with leading self-shielding models. These models predict primordial water to be between 5 and 20% enriched in heavier oxygen isotopes compared to terrestrial water.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Föhn ◽  
Marek Tulej ◽  
André Galli ◽  
Audrey Helena Vorburger ◽  
Davide Lasi ◽  
...  

<p>The search for life is one of the key topics in modern space science. The JUICE mission of the European Space Agency ESA will investigate Jupiter and its icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, with Europa being an example of a potentially habitable world around a giant gas planet. The Particle and Environment Package, PEP, on board of the JUICE spacecraft will investigate Jupiter’s icy moons and their environment. The Neutral gas and Ion Mass spectrometer NIM will investigate the icy moon’s exospheres to investigate their formation and the interaction processes of the exospheres with the moons’ surface and Jupiter’s strong magnetic field. It will enhance our understanding of the processes involved in the interactions of ion bombardment on the icy moons' surfaces. From these measurements, we will derive the moons’ surface composition and their formation processes.</p><p>NIM is a time-of-flight mass spectrometer with two particle entrances: an open-source entrance to measure neutral particles and ions directly and a close source entrance where neutral particles get thermalized before entering the sensor’s ionization region. This allows detecting of particles with high speeds. NIM has a specially designed ion storage source and an ion-mirror to double the flight distance of the produced ions by keeping the sensor at a minimal size.</p><p>In this contribution, we show calibration results of the NIM flight spare instrument on one hand operated with laboratory and on the other operated with flight electronics. We demonstrate the performance of NIMs ion-source, verify the performance of the closed-source antechamber. NIM has a demonstrated mass resolution of m/Δm 800.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pepijn Veefkind ◽  
Ilse Aben ◽  
Angelika Dehn ◽  
Quintus Kleipool ◽  
Diego Loyola ◽  
...  

<p>The Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) is the first of the Sentinel satellites dedicated to the observation of the atmospheric composition, for climate, air quality and ozone monitoring applications. The payload of S5P is TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument), a spectrometer covering spectral bands in ultraviolet, visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared, which was developed by The Netherlands in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). TROPOMI has a wide swath of 2600 km, enabling daily global coverage, in combination with a high spatial resolution of about 3.5 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> (7 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> for the SWIR band).</p><p>S5P was successfully launched on 13 October 2017 and following a six-month commissioning phase, the operational data stream started at the end of April 2018. All of the TROPOMI operational data products have been released, with the exception of the ozone profile, which is planned to become available with the next major release[AR1]  of the Level 1B data. In addition to the operational data products, new research products are also being developed.</p><p>In this contribution, the status of TROPOMI and its data products will be presented. Results for observations of recent events will be provided, along with an outlook on the next release of the data products.</p><div> <div> <div> </div> </div> </div>


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Casadio ◽  
Angelika Dehn ◽  
Thorsten Fehr ◽  
Bojan R. Bojkov

<p>During the last 18 years, the European Space Agency (ESA) has provided the scientific community with a large amount of valuable atmospheric composition data produced by a series of instruments, starting with GOME [Burrows et al., 1999], on-board the ERS-2 satellite (1995-2011), and followed by the GOMOS [Kyrola et al., 2004], MIPAS [Fischer et al., 2008], and the SCIAMACHY [Bovensmann et al., 1999], all flying on-board the Envisat satellite (2002-2012). These observations will be continued by the Sentinel-5 Precursor, Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 and extended the EarthCARE and ADM missions for aerosols and clouds. […]</p>


Author(s):  
Richard W. Hazlett ◽  
Joshua Peck

Satellite reconnaissance of the Earth’s surface provides critical information about the state of human interaction with the natural environment. The strongest impact is agricultural, reflecting land-use approaches to food production extending back to the dawn of civilization. To variable degrees, depending upon location, regional field patterns result from traditional farming practices, surveying methods, regional histories, policies, political agendas, environmental circumstances, and economic welfare. Satellite imaging in photographic true or false color is an important means of evaluating the nature and implications of agricultural practices and their impacts on the surrounding world. Important platforms with publicly accessible links to satellite image sets include those of the European Space Agency, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Centre D’etudes Spatiales, Airbus, and various other governmental programs. Reprocessing of data worldwide in scope by commercial concerns including Digital Globe, Terrametrics, and GoogleEarth in the 21st century enable ready examination of most of the Earth’s surface in great detail and natural colors. The potential for monitoring and improving understanding of agriculture and its role in the Earth system is considerable thanks to these new ways of viewing the planet. Space reconnaissance starkly reveals the consequences of unique land surveys for the rapid development of agriculture and political control in wilderness areas, including the U.S. Public Land Survey and Tierras Bajas systems. Traditional approaches toward agriculture are clearly shown in ribbon farms, English enclosures and medieval field systems, and terracing in many parts of the world. Irrigation works, some thousands of years old, may be seen in floodplains and dryland areas, notably the Maghreb and the deep Sahara, where center-pivot fields have recently appeared in areas once considered too dry to cultivate. Approaches for controlling erosion, including buffer zones, shelter belts, strip and contour farming, can be easily identified. Also evident are features related to field erosion and soil alteration that have advanced to crisis stage, such as badland development and widespread salinization. Pollution related to farm runoff, and the piecemeal (if not rapid) loss of farmlands due to urbanization can be examined in ways favoring more comprehensive evaluation of human impacts on the planetary surface. Developments in space technologies and observational platforms will continue indefinitely, promising ever-increasing capacity to understand how humans relate to the environment.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Borsdorff ◽  
Joost aan de Brugh ◽  
Haili Hu ◽  
Otto Hasekamp ◽  
Ralf Sussmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. On 13th October, 2017, the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite with the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) as its single payload. TROPOMI is the first of ESA's atmospheric composition Sentinel missions, which will provide complete long-term records of atmospheric trace gases for the coming 30 years as a contribution to the European Union's Earth Observing programme Copernicus. One of TROPOMI's primary products is atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO). It is observed with daily global coverage and a high spatial resolution of 7 × 7 km2. Due to its moderate atmospheric residence time, its atmospheric abundance provides information on both localized pollution hot spots and the pollutant transport on regional to global scales. In this contribution, we demonstrate the game-changing performance of the TROPOMI CO product, sensing CO enhancements above cities and industrial areas and tracking, with daily coverage, the atmospheric transport of pollution from biomass burning regions. The CO data product is validated with two months of Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FTS) measurements at nine ground-based stations operated by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). We found a good agreement between both data sets with a mean bias of 6 ppb for both clear-sky and cloudy TROPOMI CO retrievals. Together with the corresponding standard deviation of the station-to-station bias of 3.9 ppb for clear-sky and 2.4 ppb for cloudy-sky, it indicates that the CO data product is already well within the mission requirement.


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