First look at RBSP Space Weather data

NASA will launch two identical probes into the radiation belts to provide unprecedented insight into the physical processes and dynamics of near-Earth space. The RBSP mission in addition to the scientific data return, provides a 1kbps real-time space weather broadcast data in support of real time space weather modeling, forecast and prediction efforts. Networks of ground stations are being identified to downlink the space weather data. The RBSP instrument suites have selected space weather data to be broadcast from their collected space data on board the spacecraft, a subset from measurements based on information normally available to the instrument. The data subset includes particle fluxes at a variety of energies, and magnetic and electric field data. This selected space weather data is broadcast at all times through the primary spacecraft science downlink antennas when an observatory is not in a primary mission-related ground contact. The collected data will resolve important scientific issues and help researchers develop and improve various models for the radiation belts that can be used by forecasters to predict space weather phenomena and alert astronauts and spacecraft operators to potential hazards. The near real-time data from RBSP will be available to monitor and analyze current environmental conditions, forecast natural environmental changes and support anomaly resolution. When RBSP launches in August 2012, the RBSP instruments will be generating and broadcasting real-time space weather data. These data are used for space weather forecasting. The space weather data will be available on the RBSP Science Data Portal at http://rbspsdp.jhuapl.edu/data.php and will provide access to the space weather data received from the RBSP real-time space weather broadcast. The near real-time data will be calibrated and displayed on the web as soon as possible. The CCMC will ingest the RBSP space weather data into real-time models. The raw space weather data will be permanently archived at APL. This presentation will provide a first look at RBSP space weather data products.