Earth’s upper atmosphere above 500 km altitude constantly loses charged particles to outer space in a process called ionospheric outflow. This outflow is important for the dynamics of the near-Earth space environment (“space weather”) yet is poorly understood on a global scale. A mission is needed to observe the global patterns of ionospheric outflow and its relation to space weather driving conditions. The science objectives of such a mission could include not only the reconstruction of global outflow patterns but also the relation of these patterns to geomagnetic activity and the spatial and temporal nature of outflow composition. A study is presented to show that four well-placed spacecraft would be sufficient for reasonable outflow reconstructions.
Liemohn, M. W., Jörg-Micha Jahn, Raluca Ilie, Natalia Y. Ganushkina, Daniel T. Welling, Heather Elliott, Meghan Burleigh, Kaitlin Doublestein, Stephanie Colon-Rodriguez, Pauline Dredger, & Philip Valek (2024). Reconstruction analysis of global ionospheric outflow patterns. Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, 129, e2023JA032238. https://doi/org/10.1029/2024JA032238
