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Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
REPORT OF THE PANEL ON ATMOSPHERE-IONOSPHERE-MAGNETOSPHERE INTERACTIONS
195
8.5.2.4 Strategic Hosted Payloads
A simple review of the plethora of robust and useful measurements from NOAA’s powerful GOES platform demonstrates the possibilities that continuous observations of select scientific parameters can provide.
For example, GOES provides in situ measurements of the magnetic field, energetic particles, and solar
emissions. These data are primarily for space weather applications, but they provide important information
for research studies as well. In the past decade, a vision for other AIMI instruments in geosynchronous orbit
has grown to include imagers of the IT system at wavelengths tuned to the science target. Such observations offer compelling, continuous observations of the IT system over large regions on Earth. The hosting
of payloads in these orbits offers a cost-effective way to make a critical measurement for AIMI science
that would otherwise be allocated to an Explorer, LWS, or STP mission. Conversely, strategic observations
in place reduce the costs of future missions that require the measurements for closure, just as most AIMI
missions benefit scientifically from upstream solar wind measurements.
The AIMI panel supports development of a strategic capability to make global-scale AIMI imaging
measurements from host spacecraft, notably those in high Earth orbit and geostationary Earth orbit, as is
currently done in support of solar (GOES SXT) and magnetospheric (TWINS, GOES, LANL) research.
8.5.3 Ground-Based Facilities
The spaceflight missions discussed in the previous sections will be greatly enhanced by the acquisition
of measurements from ground-based and suborbital platforms that leverage the inherent synergy between
these different means of accessing the AIM system. Ground-based instruments have an advantage in that all
local times are viewed every day. Thus, the physics and evolutionary aspects of waves, electric fields, and
plasma structures can be explored over much shorter timescales than from space. Ground-based remote
sensing techniques and suborbital platforms are also capable of accessing regions of the atmosphere and
space that are not easily probed by orbital vehicles. On the other hand, these types of observations do not
provide the global view that is demanded by several of the science questions enumerated above.
AIMI science priorities regarding ground-based facilities are aimed mainly at advancing the knowledge
base regarding cross-scale coupling at local and regional scales, since this area of study is fertile ground for
scientific discovery, while at the same time addressing aspects of the IT system that hold societal relevance.
Thus, very significant contributions to all of the AIMI science goals described in the section titled “Science
Goals and Priorities for the 2013-2022 Decade” would be addressed by the imperatives put forth below.
Specific areas of contribution are noted.
8.5.3.1 Autonomous American Sector Network
As described in the section “Science Goals and Priorities for the 2013-2022 Decade,” AIMI science
goal 4 seeks to understand how neutrals and plasmas interact to produce multiscale structures. An example
of propagating structures over Japan is shown in Figure 8.16, but such structures also exist over the United
States (Figure 8.21). At both locations they propagate in the southeastward direction during daytime
until mid-afternoon, switching to southwestward in the late afternoon and evening. A distributed array of
ground-based instruments extending from pole to pole and with regional (i.e., continental United States)
concentrations would significantly advance understanding of hemispheric variability in these and other
anomalies (e.g., the plasma plumes illustrated in Figure 8.10) arising from plasma-neutral interactions in
the geospace system. Although a global sensor network is the ultimate vision, focusing the network initially
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
REPORT OF THE PANEL ON ATMOSPHERE-IONOSPHERE-MAGNETOSPHERE INTERACTIONS
195
8.5.2.4 Strategic Hosted Payloads
A simple review of the plethora of robust and useful measurements from NOAA’s powerful GOES platform demonstrates the possibilities that continuous observations of select scientific parameters can provide.
For example, GOES provides in situ measurements of the magnetic field, energetic particles, and solar
emissions. These data are primarily for space weather applications, but they provide important information
for research studies as well. In the past decade, a vision for other AIMI instruments in geosynchronous orbit
has grown to include imagers of the IT system at wavelengths tuned to the science target. Such observations offer compelling, continuous observations of the IT system over large regions on Earth. The hosting
of payloads in these orbits offers a cost-effective way to make a critical measurement for AIMI science
that would otherwise be allocated to an Explorer, LWS, or STP mission. Conversely, strategic observations
in place reduce the costs of future missions that require the measurements for closure, just as most AIMI
missions benefit scientifically from upstream solar wind measurements.
The AIMI panel supports development of a strategic capability to make global-scale AIMI imaging
measurements from host spacecraft, notably those in high Earth orbit and geostationary Earth orbit, as is
currently done in support of solar (GOES SXT) and magnetospheric (TWINS, GOES, LANL) research.
8.5.3 Ground-Based Facilities
The spaceflight missions discussed in the previous sections will be greatly enhanced by the acquisition
of measurements from ground-based and suborbital platforms that leverage the inherent synergy between
these different means of accessing the AIM system. Ground-based instruments have an advantage in that all
local times are viewed every day. Thus, the physics and evolutionary aspects of waves, electric fields, and
plasma structures can be explored over much shorter timescales than from space. Ground-based remote
sensing techniques and suborbital platforms are also capable of accessing regions of the atmosphere and
space that are not easily probed by orbital vehicles. On the other hand, these types of observations do not
provide the global view that is demanded by several of the science questions enumerated above.
AIMI science priorities regarding ground-based facilities are aimed mainly at advancing the knowledge
base regarding cross-scale coupling at local and regional scales, since this area of study is fertile ground for
scientific discovery, while at the same time addressing aspects of the IT system that hold societal relevance.
Thus, very significant contributions to all of the AIMI science goals described in the section titled “Science
Goals and Priorities for the 2013-2022 Decade” would be addressed by the imperatives put forth below.
Specific areas of contribution are noted.
8.5.3.1 Autonomous American Sector Network
As described in the section “Science Goals and Priorities for the 2013-2022 Decade,” AIMI science
goal 4 seeks to understand how neutrals and plasmas interact to produce multiscale structures. An example
of propagating structures over Japan is shown in Figure 8.16, but such structures also exist over the United
States (Figure 8.21). At both locations they propagate in the southeastward direction during daytime
until mid-afternoon, switching to southwestward in the late afternoon and evening. A distributed array of
ground-based instruments extending from pole to pole and with regional (i.e., continental United States)
concentrations would significantly advance understanding of hemispheric variability in these and other
anomalies (e.g., the plasma plumes illustrated in Figure 8.10) arising from plasma-neutral interactions in
the geospace system. Although a global sensor network is the ultimate vision, focusing the network initially