Ionospheric Connection Explorer

Ionospheric Connection Explorer

The ICON observational geometry, showing both in situ and remote sensing of the ionosphere-thermosphere system Credit: ICON team
Mission type Earth observation
Operator NASA
Website At ssl.berkeley.edu
Mission duration 2 years (planned)
Start of mission
Launch date 2017 (planned)[1]
Rocket Pegasus XL[2]
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth


The Ionospheric Connection Explorer] (ICON)[3] is a satellite designed to investigate changes in the Earth's ionosphere and is scheduled for launch in the summer of 2017. The mission is being led by the University of California, Berkeley[4] and will be a new addition to NASA's Explorer program. ICON will provide NASA’s Heliophysics Division with a new capability to understand the tug-of-war between Earth’s atmosphere and the space environment. In the "no mans land" of the ionosphere, a continuous struggle between solar forcing and Earth’s weather systems drive extreme and unpredicted variability. ICON will investigate the forces at play in the near-space environment, leading the way in understanding disturbances that can lead to severe interference with communications and GPS signals.

ICON was one of 11 proposals selected for NASA funding in September 2011, down from the original 22 submitted in February of that year.[5] On April 12, 2013, NASA announced that ICON, along with Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), had been selected for launch in 2017,[1] with the cost capped at $200 million, excluding launch costs.[2] The principal investigator of ICON is Thomas Immel[6] at the University of California, Berkeley.[1]

Mission concept

Once launched, ICON will perform a two-year mission to observe conditions in both the thermosphere and ionosphere.[1] ICON will be equipped with four instruments: a Michelson interferometer, built by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, will measure the winds in the thermosphere; an ion drift meter, to be built by UT Dallas, will measure the motion of charged particles in the ionosphere; and two Ultraviolet imagers will observe the airglow layers in the upper atmosphere in order to determine both ionospheric and thermospheric density and composition.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "NASA Selects Explorer Investigations for Formulation". NASA. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  2. 1 2 Leone, Dan (20 October 2015). "Heliophysics Small Explorer Solicitation Set for First Half of 2016". SpaceNews. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Ionospheric Connection Explorer at the University of California, Berkeley.
  4. ↑ Sanders, Robert (2013-04-16). "UC Berkeley selected to build NASA's next space weather satellite". Berkeley News. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  5. ↑ "NASA Selects Science Investigations For Concept Studies" (Press release). NASA. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  6. ↑ Thomas Immel
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