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Title: The FIREBIRD-II CubeSat Mission (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics)

Abstract

FIREBIRD-II is a National Science Foundation funded CubeSat mission designed to study the scale size and energy spectrum of relativistic electron microbursts. The mission consists of two identical 1.5 U CubeSats in a low earth polar orbit, each with two solid state detectors that differ only in the size of their geometric factors and fields of view. Having two spacecraft in close orbit allows the scale size of microbursts to be investigated through the intra-spacecraft separation when microbursts are observed simultaneously on each unit. Each detector returns high cadence (10 s of ms) measurements of the electron population from 200 keV to >1 MeV across six energy channels. The energy channels were selected to fill a gap in the observations of the Heavy Ion Large Telescope instrument on the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer. FIREBIRD-II has been in orbit for 5 years and continues to return high quality data. After the first month in orbit, the spacecraft had separated beyond the expected scale size of microbursts, so the focus has shifted toward conjunctions with other magnetospheric missions. FIREBIRD-II has addressed all of its primary science objectives, and its long lifetime and focus on conjunctions has enabled additional science beyondmore » the scope of the original mission. This paper presents a brief history of the FIREBIRD mission’s science goals, followed by a description of the instrument and spacecraft. The data products are then discussed along with some caveats necessary for proper use of the data.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]
  1. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
  2. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  3. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States). Applied Physics Lab.
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA (United States). Space Science Applications Lab.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
OSTI Identifier:
1671094
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-20-21165
Journal ID: ISSN 0034-6748; TRN: US2204199
Grant/Contract Number:  
89233218CNA000001; 0838034; 1339414; 80NSSC18K1204
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Review of Scientific Instruments
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 91; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0034-6748
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; Spacecrafts; polar orbit; solid state detectors; radiation belts

Citation Formats

Johnson, A. T., Shumko, M., Griffith, B., Klumpar, D. M., Sample, J., Springer, L., Leh, N., Spence, H. E., Smith, S., Crew, A., Handley, M., Mashburn, K. M., Larsen, B. A., and Blake, J. B. The FIREBIRD-II CubeSat Mission (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics). United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5137905.
Johnson, A. T., Shumko, M., Griffith, B., Klumpar, D. M., Sample, J., Springer, L., Leh, N., Spence, H. E., Smith, S., Crew, A., Handley, M., Mashburn, K. M., Larsen, B. A., & Blake, J. B. The FIREBIRD-II CubeSat Mission (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics). United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5137905
Johnson, A. T., Shumko, M., Griffith, B., Klumpar, D. M., Sample, J., Springer, L., Leh, N., Spence, H. E., Smith, S., Crew, A., Handley, M., Mashburn, K. M., Larsen, B. A., and Blake, J. B. Thu . "The FIREBIRD-II CubeSat Mission (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics)". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5137905. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1671094.
@article{osti_1671094,
title = {The FIREBIRD-II CubeSat Mission (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics)},
author = {Johnson, A. T. and Shumko, M. and Griffith, B. and Klumpar, D. M. and Sample, J. and Springer, L. and Leh, N. and Spence, H. E. and Smith, S. and Crew, A. and Handley, M. and Mashburn, K. M. and Larsen, B. A. and Blake, J. B.},
abstractNote = {FIREBIRD-II is a National Science Foundation funded CubeSat mission designed to study the scale size and energy spectrum of relativistic electron microbursts. The mission consists of two identical 1.5 U CubeSats in a low earth polar orbit, each with two solid state detectors that differ only in the size of their geometric factors and fields of view. Having two spacecraft in close orbit allows the scale size of microbursts to be investigated through the intra-spacecraft separation when microbursts are observed simultaneously on each unit. Each detector returns high cadence (10 s of ms) measurements of the electron population from 200 keV to >1 MeV across six energy channels. The energy channels were selected to fill a gap in the observations of the Heavy Ion Large Telescope instrument on the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer. FIREBIRD-II has been in orbit for 5 years and continues to return high quality data. After the first month in orbit, the spacecraft had separated beyond the expected scale size of microbursts, so the focus has shifted toward conjunctions with other magnetospheric missions. FIREBIRD-II has addressed all of its primary science objectives, and its long lifetime and focus on conjunctions has enabled additional science beyond the scope of the original mission. This paper presents a brief history of the FIREBIRD mission’s science goals, followed by a description of the instrument and spacecraft. The data products are then discussed along with some caveats necessary for proper use of the data.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5137905},
journal = {Review of Scientific Instruments},
number = 3,
volume = 91,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

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