Abstract
The Universat-SOCRAT project is developed in the Moscow State University aiming to forecast space-related risks for aviation, suborbital, and orbital flights and provide new knowledge on the magnetosphere and atmosphere of the Earth. An essential part of the system is a multi-satellite constellation, which would operate in the low-Earth orbit. Among other things, it would monitor the radiation and magnetic-wave environment in the vicinity of the Earth: in space and atmosphere. An Earth observation system, which operates in gamma and visible spectral range, should allow attribute detected changes in the environment to the atmospheric phenomena. We have already designed the instruments to detect increases in the flux of energetic charged particles (solar energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays, and electrons precipitating from radiation belts), geomagnetic disturbances, and electromagnetic transients in the atmosphere. The first stage of the program started on July 5, 2019, with a successful launch of three 3U CubeSats from the Vostochny cosmodrome. These satellites carry instruments for monitoring space radiation and prototype of the device for observing the Earth’s atmosphere in the ultraviolet range. The collected data has confirmed the advantages of multi-satellite observations for the goals of the project. During this year, we plan to launch two more 6U CubeSats with charged particle and gamma-ray detectors, magnetometers, and instrument for detecting of atmospheric electromagnetic transients. We suppose that these satellites will lay the foundation of the space threat monitoring system.
Highlights
As it is well-known, space weather monitoring implies two aspects
The input parameters for predicting the level of the radiation background on the near-Earth orbits are the values of high-energy charged particle fluxes in near-Earth space
Under quiet geo-heliomagnetic conditions radiation background is mainly due to galactic cosmic rays (GCR), charged particle fluxes are characterized by significant medium and long-term variations, which cannot be described by the existing quasi-static models of the Earth's radiation belts
Summary
As it is well-known, space weather monitoring implies two aspects. The first is fundamental, which addresses the solar-terrestrial and atmospheric-ionospheremagnetospheric relations and interactions. It should be noted that variations of the charged particle fluxes in near-Earth space are usually accompanied by disturbances in the magnetospheric-ionospheric plasma and electromagnetic environment, which affect the propagation of radio waves and, the quality of radio communications Another issue for the spacecraft is due to electromagnetic transients, i.e. intense shortterm increases in electromagnetic radiation fluxes. The possible dangerous effect on aircraft and human organisms of transient atmospheric phenomena and associated radiation remains completely unexplored In principle, such events can harm the crew of the plane, which flies close (within tens of kilometers) to the source, and the electromagnetic pulse generated in the transient event, as well as energetic particles, can lead to malfunction of the onboard electronics with unpredictable consequences. The most effective way to create such a system is to use a multi-satellite constellation, including small and ultra-small satellites of the cubesat type
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