Abstract
The NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission addresses how populations of high energy charged particles are created, vary, and evolve in space environments, and specifically within Earth’s magnetically trapped radiation belts. RBSP, with a nominal launch date of August 2012, comprises two spacecraft making in situ measurements for at least 2 years in nearly the same highly elliptical, low inclination orbits (1.1×5.8 RE, 10∘). The orbits are slightly different so that 1 spacecraft laps the other spacecraft about every 2.5 months, allowing separation of spatial from temporal effects over spatial scales ranging from ∼0.1 to 5 RE. The uniquely comprehensive suite of instruments, identical on the two spacecraft, measures all of the particle (electrons, ions, ion composition), fields (E and B), and wave distributions (d E and d B) that are needed to resolve the most critical science questions. Here we summarize the high level science objectives for the RBSP mission, provide historical background on studies of Earth and planetary radiation belts, present examples of the most compelling scientific mysteries of the radiation belts, present the mission design of the RBSP mission that targets these mysteries and objectives, present the observation and measurement requirements for the mission, and introduce the instrumentation that will deliver these measurements. This paper references and is followed by a number of companion papers that describe the details of the RBSP mission, spacecraft, and instruments.
Highlights
The science objectives for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission (RBSP) were first articulated by the NASA-sponsored Geospace Mission Definition Team (GMDT) report published in 2002, refined within the NASA RBSP Payload Announcement of Opportunity issued in 2005, and finalized in the RBSP Program Level (Level 1) requirements document signed by NASA’s Associate Administer for Science in 2008
The purpose of this paper is to provide the background and context for these overarching questions and to break them down to reveal the most compelling scientific issues regarding the behavior of the radiation belts
We describe how the characteristics and capabilities of the RBSP mission enable the resolution of these issues
Summary
The science objectives for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission (RBSP) were first articulated by the NASA-sponsored Geospace Mission Definition Team (GMDT) report published in 2002, refined within the NASA RBSP Payload Announcement of Opportunity issued in 2005, and finalized in the RBSP Program Level (Level 1) requirements document signed by NASA’s Associate Administer for Science in 2008. The purpose of this paper is to provide the background and context for these overarching questions and to break them down to reveal the most compelling scientific issues regarding the behavior of the radiation belts. We describe how the characteristics and capabilities of the RBSP mission enable the resolution of these issues This introductory paper is followed by a number of companion papers that describe the details of the mission, spacecraft, instrument investigations, and instrument hardware. Background on present understandings of some mathematical tools used in the study of radiation belts is provided in Ukhorskiy and Sitnov (this issue), and the importance of the RBSP science in mitigating the societal impacts of space weather is described by Kessel et al (this issue)
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