Space Weather Diamond: a four spacecraft monitoring system

We report here preliminary results of a mission analysis for a space weather monitoring system that provides continuous transmission of solar wind conditions 0.10 A.U. upstream from Earth. The system is based on four platforms that are phased into eccentric heliocentric orbits but, from the perspect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of atmospheric and solar-terrestrial physics 2000-09, Vol.62 (14), p.1251-1255
Main Authors: Cyr, O.C.St, Mesarch, M.A., Maldonado, H.M., Folta, D.C., Harper, A.D., Davila, J.M., Fisher, R.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Solar wind
Space weather monitoring system
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Summary:We report here preliminary results of a mission analysis for a space weather monitoring system that provides continuous transmission of solar wind conditions 0.10 A.U. upstream from Earth. The system is based on four platforms that are phased into eccentric heliocentric orbits but, from the perspective of a fixed Sun–Earth line, the spacecraft appear to orbit Earth. This system offers a 10× improvement in reporting solar wind plasma and magnetic field characteristics beyond similar platforms located at the Lagrangian L-1 point. We describe launch and energy considerations, along with a preliminary analysis of communication requirements. The Space Weather Diamond offers significant potential for scientific insight into problems requiring coordinated observations from multiple vantage points by providing the ability to separate spatial from temporal variations. We discuss examples for payloads including both in situ and remote sensing instrumentation.
ISSN:1364-6826
1879-1824
DOI:10.1016/S1364-6826(00)00069-9