GEOScan: a geoscience facility from space
Author(s)
Dyrud, Lars P.; Fentzke, Jonathan T.; Cahoy, Kerri; Murphy, Shawn D.; Wiscombe, Warren; Fish, Chad; Gunter, Brian; Bishop, Rebecca; Bust, Gary; Erlandson, Bob; Bauer, Brian; Gupta, Om; ... Show more Show less
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GEOScan is a grassroots effort, proposed as globally networked orbiting observation facility utilizing the main Iridium NEXT 66-satellite constellation. This will create a revolutionary new capability of massively dense, global geoscience observations and targets elusive questions that scientists have not previously been able to answer, and will not answer, until simultaneous global measurements are made. This effort is enabled by Iridium as part of its Hosted Payload Program. By developing a common sensor suite the logistical and cost barriers for transmitting massive amounts of data from 66 satellites configured in 6 orbital planes with 11 evenly spaced slots per plane is removed. Each sensor suite of GEOScan's networked orbital observation facility consists of 6 system sensors: a Radiometer to measure Earth's total outgoing radiation; a GPS Compact Total Electron Content Sensor to image Earth's plasma environment and gravity field; a MicroCam Multispectral Imager to measure global cloud cover, vegetation, land use, and bright aurora, and also take the first uniform instantaneous image of the Earth; a Radiation Belt Mapping System (dosimeters) to measure energetic electron and proton distributions; a Compact Earth Observing Spectrometer to measure aerosol-atmospheric composition and vegetation; and MEMS Accelerometers to deduce non-conservative forces aiding gravity and neutral drag studies. Our analysis shows that the instrument suites evaluated in a constellation configuration onboard the Iridium NEXT satellites are poised to provide major breakthroughs in Earth and geospace science. GEOScan commercial-of-the-shelf instruments provide low-cost space situational awareness and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance opportunities.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Date issued
2012-04Department
Charles Stark Draper Laboratory; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and AstronauticsJournal
Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering; v.8385
Publisher
SPIE
Citation
Dyrud, Lars P., Jonathan T. Fentzke, Kerri Cahoy, Shawn Murphy, Warren Wiscombe, Chad Fish, Brian Gunter, et al. “GEOScan: a geoscience facility from space.” In Sensors and Systems for Space Applications V, 83850V-83850V-8. SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering, 2012. © (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Version: Final published version