Science Considerations for the NPOESS Low Energy Particle Sensor (LEPS)

The Low Energy Particle Sensor (LEPS) to be developed as part of the Space Environment Sensor Suite (SESS) for the NPOESS Spacecraft is a continued enhancement of the SSJ Sensors flown on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)Spacecraft since 1973. In addition to meeting the operational requirements of the DoD and civilian communities under the oversight of the USAF, NOAA and NASA, the LEPS will continue to provide the science quality data that have been used in hundreds of scientific publications and presentations. An overview of the LEPS instrument will be presented concentrating on the continued requirements for auroral oval boundary determination and auroral energy deposition and auroral particle fluxes over the energy range from 30 eV to 50 keV. Some long-term trend data and selected results of previous investigations from the USAF DMSP and NOAA POES low energy particle data will also be presented. [The science related work is sponsored in part by AFRL under contract F1962802C0086.]