Nasa is set to launch a new science mission to explore the meeting point between space and Earth’s atmosphere.
The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission features an instrument that will be launched on a SES-14 satellite to inspect the dynamic intermingling of space and Earth’s uppermost atmosphere from geostationary orbit.
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GOLD also aims to find reasons behind the change in this region where terrestrial weather in the lower atmosphere interacts with the tumult of solar activity from above and Earth’s magnetic field.
Data from the mission is expected to improve prediction of space weather events that can impact life on Earth, satellites and astronauts in space.
Led by the University of Central Florida, US, the GOLD mission is scheduled to be launched on 25 January into a geostationary orbit situated over the Western Hemisphere from French Guiana.
The mission will also mark Nasa’s first science mission to fly as a hosted instrument aboard a commercial communications satellite.
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By GlobalDataNasa is also planning to send a separate mission, Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON), into space to explore the same zone to be studied by the GOLD mission.
The ICON spacecraft is due to be launched later this year into a low-Earth orbit to study the characteristics of Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
It will fly directly through and just above regions of interest to collect detailed remote and in-situ data on the forces that shape this area.
