The Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID) CubeSat Observatory: Mission Overview

Walsh, Brian M.; Collier, M. R.; Atz, Emil; Billingsley, Lisa; Broll, J. M.; Connor, H. K.; Chornay, D.; Cragwell, Thompson; Dobson, Norman; Eckert, Stephanie; Einhorn, David; Gallant, G.; Jackson, Kamili M.; Karki, S.; Kujawski, J.; Küntz, K. D.; Naldoza, Van; Nutter, Rousseau; Moore, James V.; O'Brien, Connor; Perez-Rosado, A.; Porter, F. S.; Sibeck, D. G.; Simms, Kenneth; Skelton, William V.; Thomas, Nicholas E.; Turner, D. L.; Yousuff, A.; Weatherwax, A. T.; Zosuls, Aleks; Thomas, E. C.

doi:10.1029/2020ja029015

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Additional design heritage stems from the CuPID cubesat mission which flew a single optic X-ray imager (Walsh et al. 2021 ; Atz et al. 2022a ).…”

Section: Instrument Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The DXL mission provided observational evidence for the solar wind charge-exchange contribution to the soft X-ray galactic background (Galeazzi et al 2014). Additional design heritage stems from the CuPID cubesat mission which flew a single optic X-ray imager (Walsh et al 2021;Atz et al 2022a). A similar tiled-MPO instrument has recently flown on the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy (LEIA) (Zhang et al 2022) and will soon be carried on the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) (Sembay et al 2024) as part of the SMILE mission (Raab et al 2016).…”

Section: Instrument Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) Mission

Walsh,

Kuntz,

Busk

et al. 2024

Space Sci Rev

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The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) is a wide field-of-view soft X-ray telescope developed to study solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. LEXI is part of the Blue Ghost 1 mission comprised of 10 payloads to be deployed on the lunar surface. LEXI monitors the dayside magnetopause position and shape as a function of time by observing soft X-rays (0.1–2 keV) emitted from solar wind charge-exchange between exospheric neutrals and high charge-state solar wind plasma in the dayside magnetosheath. Measurements of the shape and position of the magnetopause are used to test temporal models of meso- and macro-scale magnetic reconnection. To image the boundary, LEXI employs lobster-eye optics to focus X-rays to a microchannel plate detector with a 9.1$^{\circ }\times 9.1^{\circ }$ × ∘ 9.1 ∘ field of view.

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“…Additional design heritage stems from the CuPID cubesat mission which flew a single optic X-ray imager (Walsh et al. 2021 ; Atz et al. 2022a ).…”

Section: Instrument Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Instrument Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) Mission

Walsh,

Kuntz,

Busk

et al. 2024

Space Sci Rev

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“…The CuPID mission [34,35] is a six-unit (6U) Cube spacecraft project of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) [36]. To study macroscale properties of solar wind-magnetosphere interaction, i.e., dayside magnetopause reconnection, the spacecraft measures soft X-rays emitted from the process of charge-exchange between solar wind ions and neutral atoms in the magnetosheath and the magnetospheric cusps.…”

Section: Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (Cupid; 2021 Usa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Brief Introduction of Current and Future Magnetospheric Missions

Miyashita¹

2023

J. Space Technol. Appl.

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In this paper, I briefly introduce recently terminated, current, and future scientific spacecraft missions for in situ and remote-sensing observations of Earth's and other planetary magnetospheres as of February 2023. The spacecraft introduced here are Geotail, Cluster, Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms / Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (THEMIS / ARTEMIS), Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS), Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG), Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID), and EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft (EQUULEUS) for recently terminated or currently operated missions for Earth's magnetosphere; Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), Gateway, Solar wind Magneto-sphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), HelioSwarm, Solar-Terrestrial Observer for the Response of the Magnetosphere (STORM), Geostationary Transfer Orbit Satellite (GTOSat), GEOspace X-ray imager (GEO-X), Plasma Observatory, Magnetospheric Constellation (MagCon), self-Adaptive Magnetic reconnection Explorer (AME), and COnstellation of Radiation BElt Survey (CORBES) approved for launch or proposed for future missions for Earth's magnetosphere; BepiColombo for Mercury and Juno for Jupiter for current missions for planetary magnetospheres; Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and EuropaClipper for Jupiter, Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) for Uranus, and Neptune Odyssey for Neptune approved for launch or proposed for future missions for planetary magnetospheres. I discuss the recent trend and future direction of spacecraft missions as well as remaining challenges in magnetospheric research. I hope this paper will be a handy guide to the current status and trend of magnetospheric missions.

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“…Low‐energy (<30 keV) particle measurements from low‐altitude spacecraft (such as DMSP) have been used to identify the polar cap (or open/closed field line) boundary based on energy‐latitude dispersion of polar rain (<1 keV diffusive electrons in the polar cap) precipitation near this boundary (Gallardo‐Lacourt et al., 2022; Wing & Zhang, 2015; Winningham & Heikkila, 1974). Similar dispersion in low‐energy ions, also termed cusp ion steps, have been utilized to identify the cusp proper that is linked to the dayside magnetopause reconnection region (Heikkila & Winningham, 1971; Smith & Lockwood, 1996; Walsh et al., 2021). Newell and Meng (1992) used tens of thousands of individual particle precipitation measurements by the low‐altitude satellites of DMSP to construct an ionospheric map into various dayside magnetospheric regions, such as the dayside cusp, lower‐latitude boundary layer, mantle, plasma sheet, and polar rain, based on plasma precipitation characteristics with energies below ∼30 keV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energetic Electron Flux Dropouts Measured by ELFIN in the Ionospheric Projection of the Plasma Sheet

Shen,

Artemyev,

Runov

et al. 2023

JGR Space Physics

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Low‐altitude observations of magnetospheric particles provide a unique opportunity for remote probing of the magnetospheric and plasma states during active times. We present the first statistical analysis of a specific pattern in such observations, energetic electron flux dropouts in the low‐altitude projection of the plasma sheet. Using 3.5 years of data from the ELFIN CubeSats we report the occurrence distribution of 145 energetic electron flux dropout events and identify characteristics, including their prevalence in the dusk and premidnight sectors, their association with substorms and enhanced auroral activities, and their correlation with the region‐1 (R1) field‐aligned current region. We also investigate three representative dropout events which benefit from satellite conjunctions between ELFIN, GOES, and THEMIS, to better understand the magnetospheric drivers and magnetic field conditions that lead to such dropouts as viewed by ELFIN. One class of dropouts may be associated with magnetic field mapping distortions due to local enhancements and thinning of cross‐tail current sheets and amplification of R1 field‐aligned currents. The other class may be associated with the increase in perpendicular anisotropy of magnetospheric electrons due to magnetic field dipolarizations near premidnight. These plasma sheet flux dropouts at ELFIN provide a valuable tool for refining magnetospheric models, thereby improving the accuracy of field‐line mapping during substorms.

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The Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID) CubeSat Observatory: Mission Overview

Cited by 9 publications

References 87 publications

The Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) Mission

The Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) Mission

A Brief Introduction of Current and Future Magnetospheric Missions

Energetic Electron Flux Dropouts Measured by ELFIN in the Ionospheric Projection of the Plasma Sheet

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