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Persistent URL http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/63529
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Record Id 63529
Title HAGRID CDF Study Report
Contributors
Abstract The primary objective of the Heliospheric Imaging for Assessment of Global and Regional Infrastructure Damage (HAGRID) Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) study was to assess the feasibility of a low-cost technology pathfinder mission capable of providing accurate and timely warnings/alerts of terrestrial space weather events. These alerts would be integrated within a global response system to aid the operational space weather forecast, protecting critical human infrastructure. The HAGRID design centred on a spacecraft carrying a Heliospheric Imager beyond the Sun-Earth line from where it could image Earth-directed space weather events. Earth-directed solar wind transients, in particular Coronal Mass Ejections, are known to impact space and ground based technological systems at Earth. Solar wind tracking is most effective when the transients can be viewed from a position perpendicular to their direction of propagation. Techniques have been developed using data from science missions such as STEREO, demonstrating that a heliospheric imager can be used for real-time predictions when near-real time data are available. The HAGRID concept is designed around low-cost COTS components including a duplicate of a STEREO Heliospheric Imager in order to create a low-cost platform from which observations can be taken, transmitted to Earth and processed with sufficiently low latency that they can be used for genuine predictions of Earth-directed solar wind transients. For operational purposes only sub-fields of the images need be transmitted, allowing the telemetry rates to be kept low (~500 bps). During the CDF study, it was shown that it is feasible to construct a spacecraft that could be placed into an Earth-like heliocentric orbit by a low-cost launcher. The orbital characteristics would cause the spacecraft to drift ahead (or behind) the Earth at a rate that increased the Earth-Sun-spacecraft angle at around 22.5 degrees per year, similar to STEREO. Unlike STEREO however, HAGRID would carry sufficient fuel to stop the spacecraft drift relative to the Earth. In this scenario, the spacecraft would drift out to a position some 60° ahead (or behind) the Earth and then stop relative to our planet. From this location, Earth-directed CMEs could be imaged ahead of their arrival at Earth.
Organisation STFC , RALSP , RALSP - SDD , RALSP - SETD , RALSP - SPD
Keywords Heliospheric Imaging , Physics , Natural environment , Concurrent Design Facility , Operational Forecasting , Space Weather , Engineering
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Language English (EN)
Type Details URI(s) Local file(s) Year
Report 2012. RAL-CDF-REP-0002 …1 - Master FINAL.pdf 2012