GREECE Sounding Rocket Mission Overview

Marilia Samara1, Robert Michell1, Guy Alan Grubbs II2, John W Bonnell3, Keiichi Ogasawara4, Donald L Hampton5, Joerg-Micha Jahn4, Eric Donovan6, Björn Gustavsson7, Betty Susan Lanchester8, Matthew G McHarg9, Emma Spanswick6, Trond S Trondsen10 and Philip W Valek4, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, United States, (3)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (5)University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, (6)University of Calgary, Physics and Astronomy, Calgary, AB, Canada, (7)UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Physics and Technology, Tromsø, Norway, (8)University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, (9)United States Air Force Academy, Department of Physics, Colorado Springs, United States, (10)Keo Scientific Ltd., Calgary, Canada
Abstract:
On 03 March 2014 at 11:09:50 UT the Ground-to-Rocket Electrodynamics-Electrons Correlative Experiment (GREECE) sounding rocket successfully launched from Poker Flat, Alaska . It reached an apogee of approximately 335 km over the native village of Venetie during a dynamic post-midnight auroral event. A wide range of precipitating electrons were measured with the Acute Precipitating Electron Spectrometer (APES) and Medium-energy Electron SPectrometer (MESP), cumulatively covering 300 ev to 200 keV in varying time resolutions. DC to low frequency electric and magnetic fields were measured at the same time and a langmuir probe was also employed. In addition to the on board instrumentation a suite of ground based imagers was deployed under apogee. We used several electron-multiplying charge-coupled devices (EMCCDs) with different filters and field of views imaging along magnetic zenith. This yielded multi-emission line information about the auroral brightness at the magnetic footprint of the rocket critical for our main goal of exploring the correlation of the sheer flows often observed in high resolution imagery during aurora and the in situ signatures of precipitating particles and waves. The instruments used will be discussed in further detail along with preliminary results of an event rich in particle and wave signatures.
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