Rocket Experiment For Neutral Upwelling

Abstract:

Observations from the CHAMP satellite from 2004 show relatively small scale heating in the thermosphere. Several different mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. The RENU 2 rocket mission includes a suite of 14 instruments which will acquire data to help understand processes involved in neutral upwelling in the cusp. Neutral, ion, and electron measurements will be made to provide an assessment of the upwelling process. SUPERDarn measurements of large- scale Joule heating in the cusp during overflight will also be acquired. Small-scale data which could possibly be associated with Alfvén waves, will be acquired using onboard electric field measurements. In-situ measurement of precipitating electrons and all other measurements will be used in thermodynamic and electrodynamic models for comparison to the observed upwelling.