RBSP (Radiation Belt Storm Probes) Mission, Space weather and Science Topics

Radiation Belt, discovered by Van Allen in 1958, is a region energetic particles are trapped by the Earth's magnetic field. To measure charged particles and fields in the radiation belt, RBSP(Radiation Belt Storm Probes) mission will be launched in September 2012 by NASA. RBSP mission consists of two spacecraft having orbit from 600 km to 30,000 km and rotates the Earth twice a day. This mission is not designed just for scientific purpose but have operational function broadcasting real time data for space weather monitoring. As a program of KASI-NASA cooperation, KASI is constructing RBSP data receiving antenna that will be installed by April in Daejeon. With this antenna system, NASA can receive RBSP data for 24 hours and KASI also get space weather information to protect Korean GEO satellites. In this presentation, we will discuss how we use RBSP data for space weather forecasting. In addition, we will talk about science topics that can be achieved by RBSP mission. Especially we focus on the dusk-side electron precipitation that has been considered as a main mechanism of electron dropout events. We show the dusk-side precipitation is closely associated with radiation belt electron loss with NOAA-POES data, and why RBSP mission is important to understand radiation belt physics.