NASA To Launch GOLD, ICON Missions To Nearest Space(January 2018)

                        NASA To Launch GOLD, ICON Missions To  Nearest Space

NASA To Launch GOLD, ICON Missions To  Nearest Space(January 2018)

     National Aeronautics and Space Administration    (NASA) on 4 January 2018 announced to launch two missions to explore 60 miles (96 KM) of area above  Earth's surface.

The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission will be launch aboard a commercial communications satellite in January 2018 itself, while the other mission Ionospheric Connection  (ICON) will be launched later in 2018.

What is  Missions:-

• Once both the missions will be launch, GOLD and ICON will team up to explore the ionosphere, a boundary area between Earth and  space which features sea of electrically-charge electrons and ions and strong Sun radiations.

• This overlap of data will make it easier to identify what caused a certain change to the upper atmosphere at a given time

• These layers of near Earth space are increa singly becoming a part of human domain as it is home to radio signal which is used to guide to airplanes, ships and  GPS satellites.

• This two missions are complementary in Nature. ICON mission will move in low-Earth orbit at 560 km above Earth, will fly through and just above the Ionosphere, like a close-up camera.

• While, GOLD mission will run in geostationary orbit over the Western Hemisphere 22000 miles  above the planet surface. It will build up a full-disk view of the ionosphere and the upper atmosphere in every half hour(1/2 hour).

• GOLD and ICON will cooperate with each other when ICON will pass through GOLD field of view and each mission will get a snapshot (capture the photo) of the same region.

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• Moreover, it is expected that the missions will scientists find evidences for a theoretical model about El Nino's repercussions on the ionosphere.

Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk Mission

• It will focus on observing what drives change Sun, Earth's magnetic field and the lower-atmosphere in the upper-atmosphere.


• At night-time, GOLD will examine disruptions in the ionosphere, which are dense, unpredictable bubbles of charged gas that appear over the equator and tropics and interfere with radio communications.


 (ICON) Ionospheric Connection Explorer Mission:-

• ICON was particularly designed to study forces like neutral winds, pressure and solar activity individually, making it easier for scientists to elucidate cause-and-effect relation-ships.

• ICON will concentrate on how charged and neutral gases in the upper atmosphere behave and interact.


Other Importance:-

• Both the missions will also measure how upper atmosphere changes in response to hurricanes and geomagnetic storms.

Together these three missions will provide key information about how Earth’s upper atmosphere connects to the dynamic and complex system of space that fills the solar system.

Once both the missions will begin their journey, they will join a small fleet of spacecraft that study space surrounding Earth and other planets to the farthest limits of the Sun’s solar wind. Both the missions will complement third mission in the fleet- TIMED Mission.

The 16-year-old Thermosphere,, Ionosphere,, Mesosphere  Energetics and Dynamics  was launched in 2001.
       It doesn't carry all the necessary instruments to analyze the motion of the particles in the upper atmosphere that ICON and GOLD bring to the effort.