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Manweiler JW, Breneman A, Niehof J, Larsen B, Romeo G, Stephens G, Halford A, Kletzing C, Brown LE, Spence H, Reeves G, Friedel R, Smith S, Skoug R, Blake B, Baker D, Kanekal S, Hoxie V, Jaynes A, Wygant J, Bonnell J, Crawford D, Gkioulidou M, Lanzerotti LJ, Mitchell DG, Gerrard A, Ukhorskiy A, Sotirelis T, Barnes RJ, Millan R, Harris B. Science of the Van Allen Probes Science Operations Centers. Space Sci Rev 2022; 218:66. [PMID: 36407497 PMCID: PMC9668807 DOI: 10.1007/s11214-022-00919-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The Van Allen Probes mission operations materialized through a distributed model in which operational responsibility was divided between the Mission Operations Center (MOC) and separate instrument specific SOCs. The sole MOC handled all aspects of telemetering and receiving tasks as well as certain scientifically relevant ancillary tasks. Each instrument science team developed individual instrument specific SOCs proficient in unique capabilities in support of science data acquisition, data processing, instrument performance, and tools for the instrument team scientists. In parallel activities, project scientists took on the task of providing a significant modeling tool base usable by the instrument science teams and the larger scientific community. With a mission as complex as Van Allen Probes, scientific inquiry occurred due to constant and significant collaboration between the SOCs and in concert with the project science team. Planned cross-instrument coordinated observations resulted in critical discoveries during the seven-year mission. Instrument cross-calibration activities elucidated a more seamless set of data products. Specific topics include post-launch changes and enhancements to the SOCs, discussion of coordination activities between the SOCs, SOC specific analysis software, modeling software provided by the Van Allen Probes project, and a section on lessons learned. One of the most significant lessons learned was the importance of the original decision to implement individual team SOCs providing timely and well-documented instrument data for the NASA Van Allen Probes Mission scientists and the larger magnetospheric and radiation belt scientific community.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Brian Larsen
- ECT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM USA
| | - Giuseppe Romeo
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Grant Stephens
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | | | | | - Lawrence E. Brown
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | | | - Geoff Reeves
- ECT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM USA
| | | | - Sonya Smith
- ECT, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH USA
| | - Ruth Skoug
- ECT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM USA
| | - Bern Blake
- ECT, Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, CA USA
| | - Dan Baker
- ECT, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO USA
| | - Shri Kanekal
- ECT, Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, MD USA
| | - Vaughn Hoxie
- ECT, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO USA
| | | | - John Wygant
- EFW, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN USA
| | - John Bonnell
- EFW, University of California-Berkley, Berkley, CA USA
| | | | - Matina Gkioulidou
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | | | - Donald G. Mitchell
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Andrew Gerrard
- RBSPICE, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ USA
| | - Aleksandr Ukhorskiy
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Thomas Sotirelis
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Robin J. Barnes
- RBSPICE and Project, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | | | - Blaine Harris
- RBSPICE, Fundamental Technologies, LLC, Lawrence, KS USA
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Zirnstein EJ, Shrestha BL, McComas DJ, Dayeh MA, Heerikhuisen J, Reisenfeld DB, Sokół JM, Swaczyna P. Oblique and rippled heliosphere structures from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Nat Astron 2022; 6:1398-1413. [PMID: 36531130 PMCID: PMC9744672 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01798-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Past analysis has shown that the heliosphere structure can be deduced from correlations between long-scale solar wind pressure evolution and energetic neutral atom emissions. However, this required spatial and temporal averaging that smoothed out small or dynamic features of the heliosphere. In late 2014, the solar wind dynamic pressure increased by roughly 50% over a period of 6 months, causing a time and directional-dependent rise in around 2-6 keV energetic neutral atom fluxes from the heliosphere observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Here, we use the 2014 pressure enhancement to provide a simultaneous derivation of the three-dimensional heliospheric termination shock (HTS) and heliopause (HP) distances at high resolution from Interstellar Boundary Explorer measurements. The analysis reveals rippled HTS and HP surfaces that are oblique with respect to the local interstellar medium upwind direction, with significant asymmetries in the heliosphere structure compared to steady-state heliosphere models. We estimate that the heliosphere boundaries contain roughly ten astronomical unit-sized spatial variations, with slightly larger variations on the HTS surface than the HP and a large-scale, southwards-directed obliquity of the surfaces in the meridional plane. Comparisons of the derived HTS and HP distances with Voyager observations indicate substantial differences in the heliosphere boundaries in the northern versus southern hemispheres and their motion over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric J. Zirnstein
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
| | - Bishwas L. Shrestha
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
| | - David J. McComas
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
| | - Maher A. Dayeh
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX USA
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX USA
| | - Jacob Heerikhuisen
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
| | | | | | - Paweł Swaczyna
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
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