The Grand Challenge Initiative - Cusp: A campaign of sounding rocket missions to study the multi-scale physics occurring in Earth's geomagnetic cusps

The Grand Challenge Initiative - Cusp (GCI-Cusp) is a multinational observing campaign focused on the atmospheric and ionospheric regions located beneath the footprint of Earth's northern geomagnetic cusp. The geomagnetic topology in this region allows very direct coupling between the interplanetary solar wind and Earth's upper atmosphere. The result is a rich diversity of multi-scale physical processes, such as heating, plasma waves, and soft particle precipitation, that are unique to this region and still poorly understood. GCI-Cusp observations are centered on a campaign of nine sounding rocket missions that will launch from Andoya and Svalbard into the cusp region during 2018 and 2019, and are supported by an assembly of ground and space-based instrumentation, including radars, optical remote sensing systems, magnetometers, and various space-based heliospheric observation platforms. Science targets include ion outflow, plasma waves, ionospheric irregularities, and electrodynamic forcing of small-scale fluctuations in neutral density and winds. Primary sponsors for the missions include Norway, the USA, and Japan. This talk will present an overview of the science topics addressed by the GCI-Cusp, and the missions that will provide the observations.