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			 **   THE GEM MESSENGER   **
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                                                        Volume 19, Number 33
                                                           December 10, 2009
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1. Solicitation of interest in the "Space Weather Broadcast" from NASA's 
   Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission
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From: Mona Kessel <mona.kessel at nasa.gov>

NASA is developing the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission that will 
launch no earlier than May 2012, comprising two spacecraft making 
simultaneous in situ measurements of particles and fields throughout Earth's 
radiation belts.  A small portion of the data obtained from the mission will 
be broadcast from both spacecraft in real time and can be received by 
parties external to NASA. It is envisioned that these "Space Weather 
Broadcast" data will be of interest to those who are planning scientific 
activities and those who are concerned about the impact of the radiation 
belts on space assets.   

With this note we solicit indications of interest from parties who:
 
1)   may be able to contribute ground stations and operational assets to 
receive the space weather broadcast data on the ground, and/or
 
2)   are interested in using the space weather broadcast data to monitor the 
conditions of the radiation belts in near real time.
 
Interested parties should contact the "Space Weather Broadcast" point of 
contact, RBSP Deputy Project Scientist Nicola Fox (Nicola.Fox@jhuapl.edu; 
240-228-3529). The reception and utilization of the "Space Weather 
Broadcast" data will be carried out with funding that is external to NASA.
 
Further information about the RBSP mission can be found at 
http://rbsp.jhuapl.edu.  The 2 RBSP spacecraft are in nearly the same highly 
elliptical (1.1 x 5.8 RE), low inclination (10 degrees) orbits. The orbits 
are slightly different so that 1 spacecraft laps the other spacecraft about 
every 2.5 months, allowing separation of spatial from temporal affects over 
spatial scales ranging from ~0.1 to 5 RE. The unusually comprehensive suite 
of instruments, identical on the two spacecraft, measures the entire 
particle (electrons, ions, ion compositions), fields (E and B), and wave 
distributions (dE and dB) that are needed to resolve the most critical 
radiation belt science questions.  The RBSP instruments provide electron, 
ion, and compositional distribution measurements from a few electron volts 
to 10's of MeV, depending on the species; electric and magnetic field 
measurements from the quasi-static to 100's of kilohertz; and plasma density 
measurements.  


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