[en] The Ionospheric Connection Explorer is NASA's next Explorer mission, with a primary scientific goal of understanding the source of the extreme variability in Earth's ionosphere. The observatory is scheduled to be delivered to the Pegasus launch vehicle in early 2017 for a June launch. ICON carries unprecedented capability to orbit in a broader national and international effort to understand changes in our space environment occurring on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Here, we will discuss plans for the observatory checkout and early operations, and discuss the observing conditions expected in the atmosphere and ionosphere at that time. The status of the science data pipeline and the predicted performance of the observatory for scientific measurements will be discussed.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Immel, T. J.
England, S.
Mende, S. B.
Heelis, R. A.
Englert, C. R.
Edelstein, J.
Frey, H. U.
Taylor, E.
Craig, W.
Bust, G. S.
Crowley, G.
Forbes, J. M.
Gérard, Jean-Claude ; Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Harlander, J.
Huba, J.
Hubert, Benoît ; Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Labo de physique atmosphérique et planétaire (LPAP)
Kamalabadi, F.
Makela, J. J.
Maute, A. I.
Meier, R. J.
Raftery, C. L.
Hauck, K.
Rochus, Pierre ; Université de Liège > CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège)
