SpaceX's Falcon F9 rocket is now orbiting with an important payload for researchers at the University of Alberta. Carrying the CASSIOPE satellite, short for CAScade, Smallsat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer, the SpaceX rocket will lift its payload into an elliptical orbit 300 to 1500 kilometres above Earth. CASSIOPE, the first Canadian-made small satellite from the Canadian Space Agency, will host the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe, called e-POP, an instrument package of sensitive scientific equipment destined to measure particle density and motion in Earth's ionosphere. The data that e-POP collects will help researchers understand how space weather can affect satellites and sensitive ground-based systems here on Earth.
At the heart of the CASSIOPE/e-POP mission is the Mission Planning Tool, a software suite designed under the leadership of University of Alberta Professor Robert Rankin. As the principle investigator of the Canadian Space Science Data Portal, Rankin's group developed the Mission Planning Tool to allow researchers to schedule instruments on e-POP at appropriate positions in CASSIOPE's orbit and downlink data from the satellite to ground-based stations. The MPT takes into account available power and memory on-board e-POP so that scientists requesting specific combinations of instruments and instrument modes do not overload the satellite's capacity. After the data collected by e-POP is relayed to earth, it can be analyzed, visualized and distributed via the Canadian Space Science Data Portal to researchers across the globe, laying the foundation for the scientific discoveries from the mission and helping to forecast space weather into the future.
The region of the atmosphere that CASSIOPE will study is known to scientists as the ionosphere, where particles emitted from the Sun interact with Earth's atmosphere to produce the aurora. Although this region is best known for producing the Northern Lights, it is an important region for scientists because of the effects that space-storms can have on the satellites and important ground-based systems. While aurora produce dazzling displays of light and colour in the upper atmosphere, stronger storms can do more than simply impress. In March 1989, a major space weather storm tripped breakers on the Hydro-Québec power grid, leading to a blackout that lasted for over 9 hours. Later the same year, another space storm was blamed for causing the Toronto Stock Exchange to go offline for three hours. Solar storms are also monitored as they can disrupt radio and satellite communication, and cause airlines to divert flights over polar locations during times of particularly strong solar activity.
The Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe was developed by the Institute for Space Imaging Science at the University of Calgary. Consisting of eight scientific instruments, a CCD camera, plasma imager, a neutral particle sensor, magnetometers, radio and GPS receivers, and a beacon transmitter, e-POP will collect data relating to ion altitude, density and speed, in addition to capturing pictures of the aurora, and send it back to Earth. One of these instruments, the fluxgate magnetometer, was developed by PhD student David Miles at the University of Alberta, and will be the first instrument turned on when CASSIOPE reaches its intended orbit.
Data from the CASSIOPE/e-POP mission will be integrated by the Canadian Space Science Data Portal with existing space weather data from the NASA THEMIS satellite probes and the Canadian High-Arctic Ionospheric Network. The Mission Planning Tool will be available to researchers across Canada and around the globe, and will allow space weather predictions that could save hundreds of millions of dollars in damages should a strong solar storm reach Earth in the future.
The two UAlberta projects are supported by Canadian Space Agency, and support of the Canadian Space Science Data Portal by CANARIE, through their Network Enabled Platform program.
At the heart of the CASSIOPE/e-POP mission is the Mission Planning Tool, a software suite designed under the leadership of University of Alberta Professor Robert Rankin. As the principle investigator of the Canadian Space Science Data Portal, Rankin's group developed the Mission Planning Tool to allow researchers to schedule instruments on e-POP at appropriate positions in CASSIOPE's orbit and downlink data from the satellite to ground-based stations. The MPT takes into account available power and memory on-board e-POP so that scientists requesting specific combinations of instruments and instrument modes do not overload the satellite's capacity. After the data collected by e-POP is relayed to earth, it can be analyzed, visualized and distributed via the Canadian Space Science Data Portal to researchers across the globe, laying the foundation for the scientific discoveries from the mission and helping to forecast space weather into the future.
The region of the atmosphere that CASSIOPE will study is known to scientists as the ionosphere, where particles emitted from the Sun interact with Earth's atmosphere to produce the aurora. Although this region is best known for producing the Northern Lights, it is an important region for scientists because of the effects that space-storms can have on the satellites and important ground-based systems. While aurora produce dazzling displays of light and colour in the upper atmosphere, stronger storms can do more than simply impress. In March 1989, a major space weather storm tripped breakers on the Hydro-Québec power grid, leading to a blackout that lasted for over 9 hours. Later the same year, another space storm was blamed for causing the Toronto Stock Exchange to go offline for three hours. Solar storms are also monitored as they can disrupt radio and satellite communication, and cause airlines to divert flights over polar locations during times of particularly strong solar activity.
The Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe was developed by the Institute for Space Imaging Science at the University of Calgary. Consisting of eight scientific instruments, a CCD camera, plasma imager, a neutral particle sensor, magnetometers, radio and GPS receivers, and a beacon transmitter, e-POP will collect data relating to ion altitude, density and speed, in addition to capturing pictures of the aurora, and send it back to Earth. One of these instruments, the fluxgate magnetometer, was developed by PhD student David Miles at the University of Alberta, and will be the first instrument turned on when CASSIOPE reaches its intended orbit.
Data from the CASSIOPE/e-POP mission will be integrated by the Canadian Space Science Data Portal with existing space weather data from the NASA THEMIS satellite probes and the Canadian High-Arctic Ionospheric Network. The Mission Planning Tool will be available to researchers across Canada and around the globe, and will allow space weather predictions that could save hundreds of millions of dollars in damages should a strong solar storm reach Earth in the future.
The two UAlberta projects are supported by Canadian Space Agency, and support of the Canadian Space Science Data Portal by CANARIE, through their Network Enabled Platform program.