NASA announced a new mission concept to study how space weather interacts with Earth’s atmosphere. The goal of the mission is to improve predictions of the impacts of space weather events on technology and people in space. The plan focuses on how processes in the lower atmosphere affect the upper layers where space weather appears and can influence satellites, GPS, and astronauts.
The mission, named DAPHNE, stands for Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer. DAPHNE is already set to enter Phase B, which focuses on the planning and design details for flight and mission operations. The project calls for two nearly identical satellites operating together to track how variations in the lower atmosphere connect with conditions in the upper atmosphere. This helps scientists observe how the neutral atmosphere and the ionized region of space influence each other.
More to the point, the program aims to provide coordinated measurements of neutral winds, temperature, and atmospheric composition in the thermosphere. The relevant regions lie where Earth’s neutral atmosphere becomes the ionized plasma of space. In this thin, outer layer, atmospheric movement is driven by solar activity and by changes in the lower atmosphere and near-Earth space. These measurements will capture multi-point data to reveal how energy moves upward and how this affects space weather.
DAPHNE’s findings are expected to improve space weather forecasting by incorporating data from the lower atmosphere into predictive models. The research leadership comes from Aimee Merkel of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Lightly, the project is designed as a low-risk mission with high potential benefits for understanding the atmosphere’s role in space weather.
A review to confirm progress and funding availability is planned for 2027. If the project passes this review, the total estimated cost, before launch, will stay under $250 million in 2023 dollars, with a target launch no earlier than 2029. The mission emerged from a concept study in response to the DYNAMIC opportunity and is managed by NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Published by James Hydzik
James Hydzik is a technology geek focused on the junction of engineering, writing, and coffee. He joined Orbital Today in 2020 to help make sense of the Johnson government’s decision to buy OneWeb. Since then, he has taken on interviewing and editor-in-chief roles. James learned the ropes of editing and writing with Financial Times magazines, The World Bank, PwC, and Ericsson. Thus far, interviewing New Space movers has put the biggest smile on his workaday face. The son of an Electrical Engineer, James understands the value of putting complex topics into clear language for those with a lay person’s understanding of the subject. James is a European transplant from the United States, and as ex-KA3LLL, he now holds European amateur radio licenses. His next radio project is a portable 10GHz EME (moonbounce) station, as it combines his childhood interests in antennas and space.