Abstract
Following the launch and commissioning of NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) in 2012, space weather data will be generated and broadcast from the spacecraft in near real-time. The RBSP mission targets one part of the space weather chain: the very high energy electrons and ions magnetically trapped within Earth’s radiation belts. The understanding gained by RBSP will enable us to better predict the response of the radiation belts to solar storms in the future, and thereby protect space assets in the near-Earth environment. This chapter details the presently planned RBSP capabilities for generating and broadcasting near real-time space weather data, discusses the data products, the ground stations collecting the data, and the users/models that will incorporate the data into test-beds for radiation belt nowcasting and forecasting.
Highlights
Space weather is the state of the plasma, radiation, and magnetic environment in space driven by changes originating at the Sun and carried through interplanetary space by the solar wind
The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Space Weather images will be created from that data and available at http://rbspgway.jhuapl.edu/weather_currentdata like that shown in Fig. 6 are of much lower quality and fidelity than those that will be generated by the teams with the actual science data
The two spacecraft that comprise NASA’s LWS RBSP mission will continuously broadcast space weather data, except during prime science download and maneuvers. These data were selected to monitor the state of the radiation belts and will be incorporated into models such as Dynamic Radiation Environment Assimilation Model (DREAM) that could lead to better space weather forecasts
Summary
Space weather is the state of the plasma, radiation, and magnetic environment in space driven by changes originating at the Sun and carried through interplanetary space by the solar wind. In addition to scientific data (provided at a mean rate of about 100 kilo bits per second— kbps), each RBSP spacecraft will provide a continuous 1 kbps of space weather broadcast data in support of near real time space weather modeling, forecast and prediction efforts. The real-time data from RBSP will be available to monitor and analyze current environmental conditions, forecast natural environmental changes and support anomaly resolution. This will provide a simple and very quick visual for displaying the current state of the inner and outer radiation belts and the spacecraft charging environment. This chapter describes presently planned RBSP capabilities for generating and broadcasting the realtime space weather data
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