Session
Technical Session V: New Mission Concepts
Abstract
Observations of the near-Earth space environment have increased significantly in the last two decades, particularly as the number of satellite systems and users increase. The ionosphere can have a strong impact on satellite systems and can also indicate space weather conditions. The observations of satellite radio beacons is a long standing method for measuring the ionospheric electron content. The application of computerized tomography has expanded the product available from these observations. Recently, new efforts have been made to incorporate other types of ionospheric observations, decrease the processing time and develop user applications. The product, near real-time ionospheric specification, is useful for those concerned with Earth space radio propagation or the near-Earth-space environment. This paper will discuss the requirements and operations of the existing satellite observation system. Several satellites will carry coherent, dual frequency beacons similar to those on existing satellites and there is some interest in developing new small satellites dedicated to ionospheric research via beacon broadcasts. The paper will outline the requirements for those satellites and briefly discuss implementation issues. The new role for the satellites has provided a unique opportunity to conduct long term observations of the ionosphere on a large scale. The implementation of the system and the applications is a challenging and interesting task.
Satellite Methods for Ionospheric Observations
Observations of the near-Earth space environment have increased significantly in the last two decades, particularly as the number of satellite systems and users increase. The ionosphere can have a strong impact on satellite systems and can also indicate space weather conditions. The observations of satellite radio beacons is a long standing method for measuring the ionospheric electron content. The application of computerized tomography has expanded the product available from these observations. Recently, new efforts have been made to incorporate other types of ionospheric observations, decrease the processing time and develop user applications. The product, near real-time ionospheric specification, is useful for those concerned with Earth space radio propagation or the near-Earth-space environment. This paper will discuss the requirements and operations of the existing satellite observation system. Several satellites will carry coherent, dual frequency beacons similar to those on existing satellites and there is some interest in developing new small satellites dedicated to ionospheric research via beacon broadcasts. The paper will outline the requirements for those satellites and briefly discuss implementation issues. The new role for the satellites has provided a unique opportunity to conduct long term observations of the ionosphere on a large scale. The implementation of the system and the applications is a challenging and interesting task.
