|
|
 |
Mission
The TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics) mission is studying the influences of the sun and humans on the least explored and understood region of Earth’s atmosphere – the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI). The MLTI region is a gateway between Earth’s environment and space, where the sun’s energy is first deposited into Earth’s environment. TIMED focuses on a portion of this atmospheric region located approximately 60-180 kilometers (40-110 miles) above the surface.
A comprehensive global study of the MLTI region has never before been accomplished. Ground-based instruments can only observe a small portion of the upper atmosphere located over an observation site. This region is too high for balloons to reach. Sounding rockets (rockets that fly into the upper atmosphere for just a few minutes before falling back down) can only provide a brief snapshot of the MLTI region’s activity near the rocket. Other spacecraft have studied portions of the MLTI region, but TIMED is the first mission to obtain a global picture of it, which scientists need to better understand our upper atmosphere. The TIMED mission is establishing a baseline against which future studies of changes within this region can be compared and analyzed.
 |
TIMED |
Satellite Number
|
26998 |
| Launch year |
01 |
| Launch number of year † |
055 |
| Piece of Launch † |
B |
| Inclination |
74.0745 º |
| Mean Motion |
14.837 Revs/day |
| † International Designator |
The TIMED spacecraft observes this relatively unexplored frontier from its 625-kilometer (388-mile) circular orbit around the Earth. Employing advances in remote-sensing technology, the spacecraft’s instrument suite work with a worldwide network of ground-based observation sites to obtain an unprecedented set of comprehensive global measurements of the region’s temperature, pressure, wind and chemical composition, along with its energy inputs and outputs.
The TIMED spacecraft is the initial mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes Program, part of NASA’s initiative to lower mission costs and provide more frequent access to space to systematically study the sun-Earth system.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
