The Van Allen Probes Mission

Documents the science, the mission, the spacecraft and the instrumentation on a unique NASA mission to study the Earth’s dynamic, dangerous and fascinating Van Allen radiation belts that surround the planet

This collection of articles provides broad and detailed information about NASA’s Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes) twin-spacecraft Earth-orbiting mission. The mission has the objective of achieving predictive understanding of the dynamic, intense, energetic, dangerous, and presently unpredictable belts of energetic particles that are magnetically trapped in Earth’s space environment above the atmosphere. It documents the science of the radiation belts and the societal benefits of achieving predictive understanding. Detailed information is provided about the Van Allen Probes mission design, the spacecraft, the science investigations, and the onboard instrumentation that must all work together to make unprecedented measurements within a most unforgiving environment, the core of Earth’s most intense radiation regions.

This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers active in space science, solar-terrestrial interactions and studies of the upper atmosphere.

Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Vol. 179/1-4, 2013.

Preface.- Science Objectives and Rationale for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission.- Mission Overview for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission.- Radiation Belt Storm Probes – Observatory and Environments.- The Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) on RBSP.- The Electric Field and Waves (EFW) Instruments on the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission.- The Relativistic Proton Spectrometer (RPS) for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission.- Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE).- Science Goals and Overview of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) Suite on NASA’s Van Allen Probes Mission.- The Relativistic Electron-Proton Telescope (REPT) Instrument on Board the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Spacecraft: Characterization of Earth’s Radiation Belt High-Energy Particle Populations.- The Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) Instruments Aboard the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Spacecraft.- Helium, Oxygen, Proton and Electron (HOPE) Mass Spectrometer for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission.- The Engineering Radiation Monitor for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission.- The Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL).- The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) and Space Weather.- Dynamics of Radiation Belt Particles.- AE9/AP9 and SPM: New Models for Specifying the Trapped Energetic Particle and Space Plasma Environment.- Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Education and Public Outreach Program.

Dr. Nicola J. Fox is Assistant Group Supervisor of the Space Physics Group at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.  She is Project Scientist for NASA’s Solar Probe Plus mission to be launched toward the Sun in 2018, and Deputy Project Scientist for NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission, launched in August of 2012 and the subject of this volume. In the past she has been Operations Scientist for NASA Polar Mission, and as a part of that mission was an early implementer of “cradle to grave,” multiple asset analyses that have become central to understanding what is termed “space weather.”  Dr.  Fox has also long been and continues to be a sought-after interpreter of space weather issues as a part of NASA’s Education and Public Outreach activities.

Dr. James L. Burch is Vice President, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Space Science and Engineering Division. He was Principal Investigator for the NASA IMAGE global magnetospheric imaging mission and is now PI for the Instrument Suite Science Team of the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission (to be launched in 2014). Dr. Burch is a Fellow of the AGU and received the AGU Fleming Medal in recognition of his work in the field of space physics. He has served as editor-in-chief of Geophysical Research Letters and as President of the Space Physics and Aeronomy Section of the AGU.