CLUSTER – SCIENCE AND MISSION OVERVIEW

The European Space Agency's Cluster programme is designed to study the small-scale spatial and temporal characteristics of the magnetospheric and near-Earth solar wind plasma. The programme is composed of four identical spacecraft which will be able to make physical measurements in three dimensions. The relative distance between the four spacecraft will be varied between 200 and 18000 km during the course of the mission. This paper provides a general overview of the scientific objectives, the configuration and the orbit of the four spacecraft and the relation of Cluster to other missions.     

THE CLUSTER MISSION: ESA'S SPACEFLEET TO THE MAGNETOSPHERE

During the first half of 1996, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch a unique flotilla of spacecraft to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere in unprecedented detail. The Cluster mission was first proposed to the Agency in late 1982 and was selected, together with SOHO, as the Solar Terrestrial Science Programme (STSP), the first cornerstone of ESA's Horizon 2000 Programme. It is a complex four-spacecraft mission designed to carry out three-dimensional measurements of the magnetosphere, covering both large- and small-scale phenomena in the sunward and tail regions. The mission is a first for ESA in a number of ways: – the first time that four identical spacecraft have been launched on a single launch vehicle, – the first time that ESA has built spacecraft in true series production and operated them as a single group, – the first time that European scientific institutes have produced a series of up to five instruments with full intercalibration, and – the first launch of the Agency's new heavy launch vehicle Ariane-5. The article gives an overview of this unique mission and the requirements that governed the spacecraft design. It then describes in detail the resulting design and how the particular engineering challenges posed by the series production of four identical spacecraft and sets of scientific instruments were met by the combined efforts of the ESA Project Team, Industry and the experiment teams.     

THE ELECTRIC FIELD AND WAVE EXPERIMENT FOR THE CLUSTER MISSION

The electric-field and wave experiment (EFW) on Cluster is designed to measure the electric-field and density fluctuations with sampling rates up to 36000 samples s^-1. Langmuir probe sweeps can also be made to determine the electron density and temperature. The instrument has several important capabilities. These include (1) measurements of quasi-static electric fields of amplitudes up to 700 mV m^-1 with high amplitude and time resolution, (2) measurements over short periods of time of up to five simualtaneous waveforms (two electric signals and three magnetic signals from the seach coil magnetometer sensors) of a bandwidth of 4 kHz with high time resolution, (3) measurements of density fluctuations in four points with high time resolution. Among the more interesting scientific objectives of the experiment are studies of nonlinear wave phenomena that result in acceleration of plasma as well as large- and small-scale interferometric measurements. By using four spacecraft for large-scale differential measurements and several Langmuir probes on one spacecraft for small-scale interferometry, it will be possible to study motion and shape of plasma structures on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This paper describes the primary scientific objectives of the EFW experiment and the technical capabilities of the instrument.     

WHISPER, A RESONANCE SOUNDER AND WAVE ANALYSER: PERFORMANCES AND PERSPECTIVES FOR THE CLUSTER MISSION

The WHISPER sounder on the Cluster spacecraft is primarily designed to provide an absolute measurement of the total plasma density within the range 0.2–80 cm^-3. This is achieved by means of a resonance sounding technique which has already proved successful in the regions to be explored. The wave analysis function of the instrument is provided by FFT calculation. Compared with the swept frequency wave analysis of previous sounders, this technique has several new capabilities. In particular, when used for natural wave measurements (which cover here the 2–80 kHz range), it offers a flexible trade-off between time and frequency resolutions. In the basic nominal operational mode, the density is measured every 28 s, the frequency and time resolution for the wave measurements are about 600 Hz and 2.2 s, respectively. Better resolutions can be obtained, especially when the spacecraft telemetry is in burst mode. Special attention has been paid to the coordination of WHISPER operations with the wave instruments, as well as with the low-energy particle counters. When operated from the multi-spacecraft Cluster, the WHISPER instrument is expected to contribute in particular to the study of plasma waves in the electron foreshock and solar wind, to investigations about small-scale structures via density and high-frequency emission signatures, and to the analysis of the non-thermal continuum in the magnetosphere.     

THE CLUSTER DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM: A DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM IN SUPPORT OF A CHALLENGING SCIENTIFIC MISSION

The Cluster mission is aimed at the study of small-scale structures that are believed to be fundamental in determining the behaviour of key interactive processes of cosmic plasma. The mission will be controlled from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC). ESOC is also in charge of the commanding of the scientific payloads on-board the four Cluster spacecraft after negotiation with the Cluster Principal Investigators (PIs) and of collecting and distributing the mission's scientific results to the Cluster community. This paper describes the process of translating the scientific requirements of the Cluster mission into a data-processing system supporting the mission via the definition of an appropriate operational scenario. In particular, the process of negotiation between the PIs and ESOC to command the spacecraft is mediated by the Joint Science Operations Centre (JSOC) and finalised by the Cluster Mission Planning System (CMPS) while the return of the data to the Cluster community is actuated by the Cluster Data Disposition System (CDDS). The Cluster Mission Control System (CMCS) provides the interface between these two systems and the spacecraft. These elements constitute the Cluster Data-Processing System (CDPS).     

THE CLUSTER MAGNETIC FIELD INVESTIGATION

The Cluster mission provides a new opportunity to study plasma processes and structures in the near-Earth plasma environment. Four-point measurements of the magnetic field will enable the analysis of the three dimensional structure and dynamics of a range of phenomena which shape the macroscopic properties of the magnetosphere. Difference measurements of the magnetic field data will be combined to derive a range of parameters, such as the current density vector, wave vectors, and discontinuity normals and curvatures, using classical time series analysis techniques iteratively with physical models and simulation of the phenomena encountered along the Cluster orbit. The control and understanding of error sources which affect the four-point measurements are integral parts of the analysis techniques to be used. The flight instrumentation consists of two, tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers and an on-board data-processing unit on each spacecraft, built using a highly fault-tolerant architecture. High vector sample rates (up to 67 vectors s^-1) at high resolution (up to 8 pT) are combined with on-board event detection software and a burst memory to capture the signature of a range of dynamic phenomena. Data-processing plans are designed to ensure rapid dissemination of magnetic-field data to underpin the collaborative analysis of magnetospheric phenomena encountered by Cluster.     

THE ELECTRON DRIFT INSTRUMENT FOR CLUSTER

The Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) measures the drift of a weak beam of test electrons that, when emitted in certain directions, return to the spacecraft after one or more gyrations. This drift is related to the electric field and the gradient in the magnetic field, and these quantities can, by use of different electron energies, be determined separately. As a by-product, the magnetic field strength is also measured. The present paper describes the scientific objectives, the experimental method, and the technical realization of the various elements of the instrument.     

THE DIGITAL WAVE-PROCESSING EXPERIMENT ON CLUSTER

The wide variety of geophysical plasmas that will be investigated by the Cluster mission contain waves with a frequency range from DC to over 100 kHz with both magnetic and electric components. The characteristic duration of these waves extends from a few milliseconds to minutes and a dynamic range of over 90 dB is desired. All of these factors make it essential that the on-board control system for the Wave-Experiment Consortium (WEC) instruments be flexible so as to make effective use of the limited spacecraft resources of power and telemetry-information bandwidth. The Digital Wave Processing Experiment, (DWP), will be flown on Cluster satellites as a component of the WEC. DWP will coordinate WEC measurements as well as perform particle correlations in order to permit the direct study of wave/particle interactions. The DWP instrument employs a novel architecture based on the use of transputers with parallel processing and re-allocatable tasks to provide a high-reliability system. Members of the DWP team are also providing sophisticated electrical ground support equipment, for use during development and testing by the WEC. This is described further in Pedersen et al. (this issue).     

军用直升机任务效能综合评估技术及应用

论述了军用直升机任务效能综合评估的意义、方法,提出了以任务效能为优化目标的直升机综合设计技术,建立了直升机效能-费用模型。     

直升机飞行使用任务剖面编制方法

包含直升机飞行状态的使用顺序和出现率的飞行使用任务剖面,是编制直升机低周疲劳寿命可靠性分析载荷谱和可靠性试验载荷谱的基本依据.在直升机型号研制过程中一般是先根据飞行谱和典型飞行科目用理论的方法编制任务剖面.本文较完整地介绍了一套可供借鉴的直升机任务剖面编制方法,提出了其应遵循的原则.为保证完成所占时间比例较小的飞行状态的基本时间,可将任务剖面的周期放大,使其包含若干个基本任务剖面周期.针对不同的使用目的,可按损伤等效的原则对其进行简化.本文结合实例作了讨论.     

反坦克直升机任务效率评估

军用直升机在初步设计时就需用运筹学（Ｏｐｅｒａｔｉｏｎｓ Ｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈ）方法评估其战斗有效性。直升机与坦克一对一战斗结果,胜负过程符合马尔柯夫随机过程（Ｍａｒｋｏｗｖ Ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓｅｓ）。直升机战斗有效性判据是作战兑换比,即损失一架直升机可击毁敌坦克数。本文分析这个过程,列出随机微分方程组,推导出作战兑换比公式,从百找出提高战斗有效性途径,使战斗有效性评估有数量概念。     

OPPORTUNITIES FOR MAGNETOSPHERIC RESEARCH WITH COORDINATED CLUSTER AND GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS

ESA's first multi-satellite mission Cluster is unique in its concept of 4 satellites orbiting in controlled formations. This will give an unprecedented opportunity to study structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere. In this paper we discuss ways in which ground-based remote-sensing observations of the ionosphere can be used to support the multipoint in-situ satellite measurements. There are a very large number of potentially useful configurations between the satellites and any one ground-based observatory; however, the number of ideal occurrences for any one configuration is low. Many of the ground-based instruments cannot operate continuously and Cluster will take data only for a part of each orbit, depending on how much high-resolution (burst-mode') data are acquired. In addition, there are a great many instrument modes and the formation, size and shape of the cluster of the four satellites to consider. These circumstances create a clear and pressing need for careful planning to ensure that the scientific return from Cluster is maximised by additional coordinated ground-based observations. For this reason, the European Space Agency (ESA) established a working group to coordinate the observations on the ground with Cluster. We will give a number of examples how the combined spacecraft and ground-based observations can address outstanding questions in magnetospheric physics. An online computer tool has been prepared to allow for the planning of conjunctions and advantageous constellations between the Cluster spacecraft and individual or combined ground-based systems. During the mission a ground-based database containing index and summary data will help to identify interesting datasets and allow to select intervals for coordinated studies. We illustrate the philosophy of our approach, using a few important examples of the many possible configurations between the satellite and the ground-based instruments.     

Augmented Empirical Models of Plasmaspheric Density and Electric Field Using IMAGE and CLUSTER Data

Empirical models for the plasma densities in the inner magnetosphere, including plasmasphere and polar magnetosphere, have been in the past derived from in situ measurements. Such empirical models, however, are still in their initial phase compared to magnetospheric magnetic field models. Recent studies using data from CRRES, Polar, and Image have significantly improved empirical models for inner-magnetospheric plasma and mass densities. Comprehensive electric field models in the magnetosphere have been developed using radar and in situ observations at low altitude orbits. To use these models at high altitudes one needs to rely strongly on the assumption of equipotential magnetic field lines. Direct measurements of the electric field by the Cluster mission have been used to derive an equatorial electric field model in which reliance on the equipotential assumption is less. In this paper we review the recent progress in developing empirical models of plasma densities and electric fields in the inner magnetosphere with emphasis on the achievements from the Image and Cluster missions. Recent results from other satellites are also discussed when they are relevant.     

THE CLUSTER SCIENCE DATA SYSTEM (CSDS) – A NEW APPROACH TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIFIC DATA

Cluster is an ESA/NASA four-spacecraft mission designed to study plasma processes in three dimensions using the combined data from eleven instruments on each spacecraft. This mission requires the combination of many measured parameters, and the Cluster community have taken the unprecedented step of establishing a set of high quality data products from all instruments at spin (~ 4 s) resolution which will be produced and distributed throughout the mission lifetime. The Cluster Science Data System (CSDS) is based on a set of eight data centres which are implemented and funded through national programmes. As part of CSDS, a Joint Science Operations Centre (JSOC) has been established to facilitate the commanding of the 44 instruments. It is co-located with the UK data centre at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, United Kingdom. ESA's contribution to CSDS includes the provision of the CSDS User Interface, a dedicated network (CSDSnet) to interconnect the data centres, and the co-ordination of all activities at CSDS level. A wide scientific community wishing to use Cluster data will have differing data rights, experience and means of access. Users will also include those working with data sets from other missions, e.g., Soho, Geotail, Wind, Polar, Interball, and Equator-S. The Cluster Science Data System is primarily designed to support multi-instrument and multi-spacecraft data analysis and it is distributed across six national data centres in Europe, one in the USA, and one in China. CSDSnet will be used to interconnect the European data centres, the Joint Science Operations Centre at Didcot and the spacecraft Operations Control Centre at ESOC in Darmstadt.