Mission Coordination
From ViRBO
At the 2008 COSPAR/PRBEM meeting, it was decided that PRBEM (Panel on Radiation Belt Environment Modeling) should help coordinate in situ data products for upcoming radiation belt missions. Specifically, PRBEM will facilitate definition of coordinate systems, data file formats, metadata formats, etc.
Contents |
1. Upcoming radiation belt missions
- RBSP (NASA, 2-probe, GTO, 2012 TBR)
- ORBITALS (CSA, 1-probe, GTO, 2012 TBR)
- ERG (JAXA, 1-probe, GTO, TBD)
- Others
2. Points of Contact
- Paul O'Brien, The Aerospace Corporation (paul dot obrien at aero dot org) - PRBEM, RBSP
- Sebastien Bourdarie, ONERA (sebastien dot bourdarie at onecert dot fr) - PRBEM
- Ian Mann, U. Alberta (imann at space dot ualberta dot ca) - ORBITALS
- Yoshi Miyoshi, STEL,Nagoya Univ. (miyoshi at stelab dot nagoya-u dot ac dot jp) - ERG, PRBEM
3. Energetic Particle Data
Energetic particle data includes trapped and untrapped particles with energies sufficient that large-scale magnetospheric electric fields result in negligible perturbations to the particle trajectory.
A data format for "calibrated" particle flux data already exists from ONERA/PRBEM. We still need to define a "counts" file format draft and maybe a distinct "events" file format.
We expect some updates to the way in which we record the cross-cal information. For now, the flux file format includes an Xcal variable which records the estimated systematic relative error. We need to add some kind of field to record the estimated residual relative error (e.g., rms of the natural log from the intercal). Perhaps this could simply be Xcal_rms, and otherwise have the same format as Xcal.
Something we'll want to encourage is the provision of instrument response functions. These functions can be very helpful when doing intercalibration, inversion, and data assimilation. For the really ambitious, calibration data and instrument design specifications that can be used by future scientists to refine the response function, perhaps based on on-orbit calibration and cross-calibration.
PRBEM provides the IRBEM-LIB (formerly ONERA-DESP-LIB) code repository for computing magnetic field coordinates appropriate for energetic particles. We hope to build on that foundation for whatever coordinate systems we use in this coordinated effot.
4. Plasma Data
Plasma data includes trapped particles with energies low enough that large-scale magnetospheric electric fields result in significant perturbations to the particle trajectory.
One of the critical outstanding issues is the coordinate system appropriate for organizing Plasma data. Typically plasma data is organized by L, MLT, and magnetic latitude or by X,Y,Z in GSM. Neither of these coordinate systems represents invariants along the particle drift orbit. A good coordinate system probably should.
5. DC Field Data
DC field data includes quasistatic electromagnetic field components. DC field data may include ULF and lower frequency perturbations.
6. Wave Data
AC field data includes electromagnetic field components that vary sufficiently fast to be considered propagating or standing waves. AC field data may include ULF and lower frequency perturbations.
