Ionosphere Space complex for monitoring geophysical situation

Ionozond is a space complex for monitoring the geophysical situation ("space weather") for basic scientific research and solving applied problems.

The customers of the space complex are the Federal Service of Russia for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

2022

Satellite Launch Plan

On July 29, 2022, it became known that the Russian satellites the Ionosphere would go into space in 2023.

Макет КА «Ионосфера-М» (проект «Ионозонд») на выставке IKI RAS (c) T. Zharkova, IKI RAS, 2022

The Ionozond initiative is part of the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. The future space system will allow monitoring the state of the ionosphere, as well as tracking the state of the Sun and exploring solar-terrestrial processes.

It is assumed that the Ionozond satellite constellation will consist of four identical Ionosphere-M devices designed for sensing and monitoring the ionosphere. The system will be supplemented by the fifth satellite - Zond-M, designed to observe the Sun.

The first to go into space are two Ionosphere-M vehicles: their launch is scheduled for 2023 from the Vostochny cosmodrome. In a few years, the grouping is planned to be supplemented by the second pair of Ionosphere-M vehicles and the Zond-M satellite.

Eight scientific instruments will be installed on each Ionosphere-M spacecraft of the first pair. Ten instruments will be located on the satellites of the second pair. The main scientific instrument is the LAERT ionosonde: it will "enlighten" the ionosphere, and according to its data, vertical electron concentration profiles will be built. Other instruments will measure the flows of energetic particles, their spatial and energy distributions^[1].

Scientific tasks

The Ionozond satellite project was conceived both to solve fundamental scientific problems and to monitor space weather for applied purposes.

Among the scientific tasks that the Ionozond space complex is designed to solve for August 2022:

• observations of the state of the ionosphere:
  • space-time structure and parameters of the ionosphere,
  • spatial distribution of the electron concentration of the ionosphere,
  • natural and artificial inhomogeneities and ionospheric-magnetic disturbances,
  • physical phenomena in the ionosphere resulting from active impacts of natural and anthropogenic origin,
  • spatial distribution of electromagnetic fields in near-Earth space,
  • ozone distribution in the upper atmosphere;

• observations of the Sun:
  • mapping the Sun and near-solar space in the ultraviolet and visible regions of the spectrum,
  • measurements of solar cosmic ray flows and hard electromagnetic radiation,
  • measurements of solar X-ray and ultraviolet radiation;

• observations of the upper atmosphere:
  • illumination of the upper atmosphere (optical characteristics),
  • composition of neutral upper atmosphere;

• magnetosphere control:
  • monitoring of the state of the radiation situation,
  • registration of magnetospheric phenomena;

• observations of wave activity of electromagnetic waves in the ionosphere and upper atmosphere;
• observations of particulate ionizing radiation:
  • measurements of spectral characteristics of proton and electron flows of solar cosmic radiation,
  • measurements of galactic cosmic ray flows.

Ionosphere and Probe spacecraft

According to information for August 2022, the Ionozond space complex consists of two segments: the Ionosphere spacecraft (4 spacecraft) and the Zond spacecraft.

Ionosphere spacecraft

During the implementation of the project, it is planned to launch 4 Ionosphere spacecraft into orbit, designed to observe the state of the ionosphere. The instrumentation of the devices is the same.

Ionosphere Spacecraft Instruments

• Ionospheric plasma energy spectrometer (EPSI) for measuring local parameters of ionospheric plasma along the spacecraft orbit, studying the structure and dynamics of the ionosphere as a whole, studying individual physical processes in ionospheric plasma, global ionosphere monitoring
• Ozonometer-TM for spectroscopic measurements of the intensity of UV radiation reflected by the Earth's atmosphere in the band of 300-400 nm
• Low-frequency wave complex (NVK2) for measuring magnetic and electric fields of near-Earth space in the frequency range from 0 to 20 kHz in order to determine the state of magnetospheric-ionospheric plasma and to detect the effects of natural and anthropogenic origin
• GPS full electronic content meter (RPE) for determining the altitude distribution of the electronic concentration of the Earth's ionosphere (from the base of the ionosphere to the altitude of the spacecraft) based on data from radio-intensive measurements of signals from spacecraft of global navigation systems GPS/GLONASS
• Dual-frequency 150/400 MHz transmitter (BEACON) for radio broadcasting of the Earth's ionosphere at frequencies of 150 MHz and 400 MHz in order to determine the parameters of the ionosphere in the sub-satellite region
• Plasma and energetic radiation spectrometer (SPER/1) for measuring differential energy spectra of low-energy electrons and protons in the energy diapozone 0.05-20 keV, electron spectra in the range 0.1-10 MeV, proton spectra in the range 1-100 MeV, α particles of MeV energies
• Galactic Cosmic Ray Spectrometer (GALS/1) for measurements of proton flux density with energy of more than 600 MeV in three energy intervals (radiation is recorded by Cherenkov detector), as well as for measurements of the total density of proton and electron flux by Geiger counters in four energy ranges
• Gamma spectrometer (SG/1) for measuring differential energy spectra of rigid X-ray and gamma radiation of the Earth's atmosphere
• The onboard ionosonde LAERT is designed for integrated global sensing of the Earth's ionosphere from the spacecraft at frequencies from 0.1 MHz to 20 MHz
• Aircraft complex for control and collection of scientific information (BKUSNI) for collection, storage and transmission of target information of devices of the target equipment complex (PSA) to RLCI-I radio line, as well as for control of PSA units operation modes

The Ionosphere spacecraft will function in two orbital planes, two in each plane. Each pair of devices in the same plane must be separated by an angle of 180 ° ± 30 °. The position of the orbit plane of the first pair of spacecraft relative to the direct ascent of the middle Sun ~ 135 °, the local time of the ascending node of the orbit ~ 21.00 hour. The position of the orbit plane of the second pair of spacecraft ~ 46 °, the local time of the ascending node of the orbit ~ 15.00 hour. Change of orbit planes position during SAS - not more than ±10°.

Spacecraft "Probe"

The spacecraft "Probe" is designed for observations of the Sun.

Instruments of "Probe" spacecraft

• Corona telescope (STACK) for monitoring the Sun's corona at altitudes from 1 to 10 solar radii in the spectral ranges of vacuum ultraviolet (VUF) and visible regions of the spectrum in order to detect and determine the dynamics of coronal mass emissions (KVM)
• Solar Imaging Spectral Telescope (SOLOIST) for measuring radiation flows and constructing high-precision images of the transition layer and corona of the Sun in the range of altitudes from 0.05 to 1 solar radius
• X-ray spectrophotometer (RESPECT) for continuous monitoring of X-ray flux of the Sun's corona
• X-ray photometer (SRF) for measuring the X-ray radiation of the Sun against the background of charged particles
• Solar Ultraviolet Flux Spectrophotometer (SUF) to measure the density of the Sun's flux in the hydrogen resonance line HLα (121.6 nm)
• Spectrozonal system for UV, visible and IR ranges with a camera (LETIZIA) for measuring the spatial distribution of radiation intensity of lines 630 nm [OI], 427.8 nm [N2 +] of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere
• Scanning Ozonometer-3 for spectroscopic measurements of the intensity of UV radiation reflected by the Earth's atmosphere in the 300-400 nm band
• Magnetometer (FM-G) for measuring three components of magnetic induction of the Earth's magnetic field in order to conduct operational global and continuous monitoring of the spatial and temporal distribution of the magnetic field in near-Earth space
• Radio frequency mass spectrometer (RIMS-A) for automatic analysis of the neutral and ion composition of the upper atmosphere of the Earth and the natural atmosphere of the spacecraft in two ranges of mass numbers: (1-4) and (10-50) atomic units of mass (amu)
• Gamma spectrometer (SG/2) for measuring differential energy spectra of rigid X-ray and gamma-ray radiation of the Sun in the energy range (0.02-10.0) MeV
• Low-frequency wave complex (NVK2) for measuring magnetic and electric fields of near-Earth space in the frequency range from 0 to 20 kHz in order to determine the state of magnetospheric-ionospheric plasma and to detect the effects of natural and anthropogenic origin
• Aircraft complex for control and collection of scientific information (BKUSNI-З) for collection, storage and transmission of target information of PSA devices to RLCI-I radio line, as well as for control of PSA units operation modes

The Probe spacecraft must operate in a near-circle solar-synchronous, near-terminal orbit. The change in the position of the orbit plane during the SAS is not more than ±10°.^[2]

Notes