According to the Science and Technology Daily, NASA's ionospheric-connected detector will be launched in October to study the dynamic boundary between Earth and space. It provides remote and on-site measurement data that will help scientists better understand this area. And how it changes with the weather in the upper space and the weather in the ground below, the dynamic mixing of the upper and lower weather may affect the communication, satellite and astronaut activities on Earth.
The idea of developing ICON was proposed in 2011, and the completed ICON 'weight' is about 288 kg. It will run at an altitude of 22,500 km / h on orbit about 579 km above the Earth, close to the ionosphere (the Earth's atmosphere is filled with charged particles) Upstream of this area. From this vantage point, ICON can either measure remotely down or directly measure the surrounding material to obtain a complete map of the change in the area.
ICON does not carry any onboard fuel, a solar panel about 2.54 meters long and 0.84 meters wide will provide power for the spacecraft.
ICON carries 4 different types instrument Two Michelson interferometers (MIGHTI) for global high-resolution thermal imaging for observing the temperature and velocity of the neutral atmosphere; two ion velocity meters (IVM) for observing the propulsion of charged particles at high altitudes and The speed at which the electric field is generated, they can only be used in the field; the extreme ultraviolet instrument (EUV) is used to capture images of oxygen in the upper atmosphere to measure the height and density of the ionosphere during the day; the far ultraviolet instrument (FUV) is used for Capture images of the upper atmosphere in the far ultraviolet range. At night, FUV measures the density of the ionosphere and tracks the effects of weather changes in the lower atmosphere. During the day, FUV measures the chemical changes in the upper atmosphere. ICON instruments generate and transmit a total of 1,000 per day. Megabit data.
ICON will collaborate with NASA's Earth and Edge Global Observations (GOLD) launched in January this year. GOLD will benefit from the geostationary orbit over Brazil, where the same area ICON will study. Panorama view.
