This white paper is highly topical as it relates to the upcoming solar wind magnetosphere ionosphere link explorer (SMILE) mission: SMILE is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and it aims to build a more complete understanding of the Sun–Earth connection by measuring the solar wind and its dynamic interaction with the magnetosphere. It is a fully funded mission with a projected launch in 2025. This paper outlines a plan for action for SMILE’s first Northern hemisphere winter campaign using ground-based instruments. We outline open questions and which data and techniques can be employed to answer them. The science themes we discuss are: (i) Earth’s magnetosheath, magnetopause, and magnetic cusp impact on the ionospheric cusp region; (ii) defining the relationship between auroral processes, solar wind, and magnetospheric drivers; (iii) understanding the interhemispheric properties of the Earth’s magnetosphere–ionosphere system. We discuss open questions (different to the mission goals) which may be answered using existing ground-based instrumentation together with SMILE data to leverage the maximum scientific return of the mission during the first winter after launch. This paper acts as a resource for planning, and a call to collaborative action for the scientific community.
The wind mission Aeolus of the European Space Agency was a groundbreaking achievement for Earth observation. Between 2018 and 2023, the space-borne lidar instrument ALADIN onboard the Aeolus satellite measured atmospheric wind profiles with global coverage, which contributed to improving the accuracy of numerical weather prediction. The precision of the wind observations, however, declined over the course of the mission due to a progressive loss of the atmospheric backscatter signal. The analysis of the root cause was supported by the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina whose fluorescence detector registered the ultraviolet laser pulses emitted from the instrument in space, thereby offering an estimation of the laser energy at the exit of the instrument for several days in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The reconstruction of the laser beam not only allowed for an independent assessment of the Aeolus performance, but also helped to improve the accuracy in the determination of the laser beam’s ground track on single pulse level. The results presented in this paper set a precedent for the monitoring of space lasers by ground-based telescopes and open new possibilities for the calibration of cosmic-ray observatories.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10531118
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Optical Society of America
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Optica
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2334-2536
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 263
- Size(s):
- Article No. 263
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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