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

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400

500

600

700

800

CA

SN

R (

Volts/V

olt)

time (sec)

0 20 40 600

100

200

300

400

500

600

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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