Satellite Tracking Ground StationSTGS Supported Satellites

« AIM

AIM

AIM Highlights

Launch Date :25 April 2007
Altitude : 600 km
Cycle : 30 Days
Status : In Service
Website :
http://www.nasa.gov/aim/
http://aim.hamptonu.edu/

Detailed Summary

AIM is a two-year mission to study Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs), the Earth’s highest clouds, which form an icy membrane 50 miles (80.4 km) above the surface at the edge of space.
The AIM mission has been extended by NASA through the end of FY12. During this time the instruments will monitor noctilucent clouds to better understand their variability and possible connection to climate change.

AIM Data

AIM data are not archived by ASF. Information on accessing AIM data can be found at the AIM website.

« COSMIC

cosmic

COSMIC Highlights

Launch Date :14 April 2006
Altitude :800 km
Status : In Service
Website :
http://www.cosmic.ucar.edu/about.html

Detailed Summary

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F3C) is a joint Taiwan/US science mission for weather, climate, space weather and geodetic research. The F3C mission was successfully launched on 14 April 2006. Six identical micro satellites, each carrying an advanced GPS radio occultation (RO) receiver, a Tiny Ionospheric Photometer (TIP) and a Tri Band Beacon (TBB) were deployed.

COSMIC Data

COSMIC data are not archived by ASF. Information on accessing COSMIC data can be found at the COSMIC website.

« FASTSAT

fastsat Satellite

FASTSAT Highlights

Launch Date :19 November 2010
Altitude : 500 - 1000 km
Status : In Service
Website :
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/fastsat/

Detailed Summary

FASTSAT (Fast, Affordable, Science and Technolgy SATellite) is NASA’s first microsatellite designed to create a capability that increases opportunities for secondary, scientific and technology payloads, or rideshares, to be flown at lower cost than previously possible.

The overall objective of the FASTSAT mission is to demonstrate the capability to build, design and test a microsatellite platform to enable governmental, academic and industry researchers to conduct low-cost scientific and technology experiments on an autonomous satellite in space.

FASTSAT establishes a platform and environment where science and technology research experiment payloads of low- and mid-level complexity can be flown responsively and affordably in low-Earth orbit.

FASTSAT Data

FASTSAT data are not archived by ASF.

« GRACE

grace

GRACE Highlights

Launch Date :17 Mar 2002
Altitude :485 km
Status : In Service
Website :
http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www-app2.gfz-potsdam.de/pb1/op/grace/index_GRACE.html

Detailed Summary

The Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) is a joint project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Deutsches Zentrum f�r Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR).
The primary science objective of the GRACE mission is to provide with unprecedented accuracy, global and high-resolution estimates of the constant and time-variable part of the Earth's gravity field. A secondary objective is the measurement of several hundred globally distributed profiles per day of the excess delay or bending angle of GPS measurements caused by the atmosphere and ionosphere, which can be converted to total electron content and/or refractivity, respectively.

« QuikSCAT

QuikScat Satellite

QuikScat Highlights

Launch Date : 19 June 1999
Altitude : 800 km
Cycle : 41 days
Sensor : Sea Winds Microwave Radar Scatterometer
Frequency/Wavelength : 13.4 GHz
Status : In Service
Website :
http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/index.cfm

Detailed Summary

NASA launched QuickSCAT (Quick Scatterometer) in 1999 as a "quick recovery" mission to replace the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) lost aboard Japan's ADEOS-1 satellite in 1997. The 190 kilogram satellite was inserted into a sun-synchronous, near-polar orbit by a Titan II rocket. It carries a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction over Earth’s oceans day or night, regardless of weather.

QuickSCAT’s objectives include improving weather forecasts and storm warnings, and studying vegetation and ice pack changes.

QuikScat Data

QuickSCAT data is available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO DAAC) maintained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

« SAMPEX

sampex

SAMPEX Highlights

Launch Date :3 July 1992
Altitude :550 x 675 km
Status : In Service
Website :
http://sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov/smex/sampex/

Detailed Summary

The Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) contains four instruments which are a complementary set of high resolution, high sensitivity, particle detectors used to conduct studies of solar, anomalous, galactic, and magnetospheric energetic particles.
SAMPEX is a momentum-biased, sun-pointed spacecraft that maintains the experiment-view axis in a zenith direction as much as possible, especially while traversing the polar regions of the Earth. It points its solar array at the Sun by aiming the momentum vector toward the Sun and rotating the spacecraft one revolution per orbit about the Sun/spacecraft axis.

SAMPEX Data

SAMPEX data are not archived by ASF. Information on accessing SAMPEX data can be found at the SAMPEX Data Center.

« SCISAT

SCISAT

SCISAT Highlights

Launch Date : 13 Aug 2003
Altitude : 650 km
Status : In Service
Website :
http://www.ace.uwaterloo.ca/

Detailed Summary

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched SCISAT also known as the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) aboard an Orbital Space Corporation winged Pegasus rocket launched from an L-1011 jet in August 2003. The 150 kilogram satellite is intended to study a range of atmospheric processes. The main goal of ACE is to study the atmospheric chemistry and dynamics that affect stratospheric ozone depletion, but ACE measurements are also being used to study ozone depletion in the Antarctic, the atmospheric effects of biomass burning, the effects of aerosols and clouds on the global energy balance, and other areas of atmospheric science.

SCISAT Data

SCISAT data are not archived by ASF. Information on accessing SCISAT data can be found at the SCISAT website.

« SAC-D

sac-d

SAC-D Highlights

Launch Date :10 June 2011
Altitude :657 km
Status : In Service
Website :
http://www.conae.gov.ar/eng/satelites/sac-d.html
http://aquarius.nasa.gov/index.html

Detailed Summary

The SAC-D (Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas)/Aquarius Observatory is a joint NASA/CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales) mission to map the salinity—the concentration of dissolved salt—at the ocean surface. This information is critical to improving our understanding of two major components of Earth’s climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation. By measuring ocean salinity from space, the SAC-D/Aquarius mission will provide new insights into how the massive natural exchange of freshwater between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences ocean circulation, weather and climate.

sac-d Data

SAC-D data are not archived by ASF

STGS Supported Satellites

AIM : AIM studies Polar Mesospheric Clouds which form an icy membrane 50 miles (80.4 km) above the earth's surface at the edge of space.

COSMIC : FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F3C) is a joint Taiwan/US science mission for weather, climate, space weather and geodetic research.

FASTSAT : FASTSAT establishes a platform and environment where science and technology research experiment payloads of low- and mid-level complexity can be flown responsively and affordably in low-Earth orbit.

GRACE : GRACE is a joint U.S./German satellite mission, which provides global high resolution estimates of the Earth's gravity field and its variability in time.

QuikSCAT : QuikSCAT carries a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction over Earth’s oceans day or night, regardless of weather.

SAMPEX : SAMPEX is investigating the composition of local interstellar matter and solar material and the transport of magnetospheric charged particles into the Earth's atmosphere.

SCISAT : SCISAT studies a wide range of atmospheric processes.

SAC-D : The SAC-D/Aquarius Observatory is a joint NASA/CONAE mission to map salinity at the ocean surface.

STGS Previously Supported Satellites

ADEOS-1 : ADEOS-1 was launched with the intent of acquiring global observation data corresponding to environmental changes.

ADEOS-2 : ADEOS-2 was launched to support the monitoring of global environmental changes.

ALOS : Japan launched ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) in January 2006, aboard an H2-A rocket.

CHAMP : CHAMP provides important contributions for geo-scientific research and information about the physics of the atmosphere.

ERS-1 : ERS-1 (European Remote Sensing) was a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite for remote sensing from a polar orbit.

ERS-2 : ERS-2(European Remote Sensing) is a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite for remote sensing from a polar orbit.

FAST : The primary objective of FAST is to study the microphysics of space plasma and the accelerated particles that cause the aurora.

JERS-1 : JERS-1 (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite) was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) aboard a Japanese H-1 launcher, to provide global and repetitive observations of the environment using techniques which allow imaging to take place in all weather conditions.

MSX : MSX was a test project of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

RADARSAT-1 : RADARSAT-1 is an advanced Earth observation satellite developed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to monitor environmental change and to support resource sustainability.

SNOE : SNOE (Student Nitric Oxide Explorer) was launched by a winged Pegasus XL rocket released from an L-1011 jet aircraft.

TRACE : The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission to image the solar corona and transition region at high angular and temporal resolution.