CASSIOPE Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) Mission Overview

Abstract

The Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) on the polar-orbiting CASSIOPE small satellite (325×1500 km, 80° inclination) is a suite of 8 plasma instruments, including imaging plasma and neutral particle sensors, magnetometers, dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, charge coupled-device (CCD) cameras, a radio wave receiver and a beacon transmitter. The scientific objective of e-POP is to make observations of mesoscale and microscale plasma processes in the topside high-latitude ionosphere at the highest-possible resolution, specifically to study the microscale characteristics of plasma outflow and related acceleration processes, the occurrence morphology of neutral escape, and the effects of auroral currents on plasma outflow and those of plasma microstructures on radio propagation: the strategy is to use the large data storage and high-speed telemetry downlink capacity of a companion, experimental communications payload on board CASSIOPE to support the high-resolution observations of particle distributions, waves and magnetic fields to 10-ms time scale (∼100 m spatial scale) and the imaging of the aurora on 100-ms time scale, as well as imaging studies of the ionosphere in conjunction with ground-based transmitters and ground receiving stations on comparable (10–100 ms) time scales.