The Double Star mission

Abstract

Abstract. The Double Star Programme (DSP) was first proposed by China in March, 1997 at the Fragrant Hill Workshop on Space Science, Beijing, organized by the Chinese Academy of Science. It is the first mission in collaboration between China and ESA. The mission is made of two spacecraft to investigate the magnetospheric global processes and their response to the interplanetary disturbances in conjunction with the Cluster mission. The first spacecraft, TC-1 (Tan Ce means "Explorer"), was launched on 29 December 2003, and the second one, TC-2, on 25 July 2004 on board two Chinese Long March 2C rockets. TC-1 was injected in an equatorial orbit of 570×79 000 km altitude with a 28 • inclination and TC-2 in a polar orbit of 560×38 000 km altitude. The orbits have been designed to complement the Cluster mission by maximizing the time when both Cluster and Double Star are in the same scientific regions. The two missions allow simultaneous observations of the Earth magnetosphere from six points in space. To facilitate the comparison of data, half of the Double Star payload is made of spare or duplicates of the Cluster instruments; the other half is made of Chinese instruments. The science operations are coordinated by the Chinese DSP Scientific Operations Centre (DSOC) in Beijing and the European Payload Operations Service (EPOS) at RAL, UK. The spacecraft and ground segment operations are performed by the DSP Operations and Management Centre (DOMC) and DSOC in China, using three ground station, in Beijing, Shanghai and Villafranca.

Double Star/Cluster observation of neutral sheet oscillations on 5 August 2004

“…The first Double Star satellite, known as TC-1 (which is from the Chinese abbreviation of "Explorer 1"), was launched on 29 December 2003, into a nearly equatorial orbit with an apogee just about 13 R E and a perigee altitude of 570 km. The second satellite, TC-2 was launched six months later on 24 July 2004 into a polar orbit with an apogee of 7 R E ( Liu et al, 2005) Double Star, together with Cluster, enable us to make simultaneous multi-point, multi-scale observations in many key magnetospheric regions. Using Double Star nightside conjunctions with Cluster we will have simultaneous observations at tailward distances of 10-13 and 16-19 R E .…”

Moderate geomagnetic storm (21–22 January 2005) triggered by an outstanding coronal mass ejection viewed via energetic neutral atoms

“…These measurements were made from different vantage points by the High-Energy Neutral Atom (HENA) instrument aboard the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft and by the NeUtral Atom Detector Unit (NUADU) instrument aboard the Double Star-Polar (TC-2) spacecraft. Accounts of the Double Star and IMAGE missions are contained in the work of Liu et al [2005] and Burch [2000], respectively. HENA made observations outside the radiation belts from 1600-1900 UT, 21 January, and from 2300 UT to ∼0130 UT, 21-22 January.…”

Global manifestations of a substorm onset observed by a multi-satellite and ground station network

“…The Cluster quartet, along with Double Star set up an excellent constellation for exploring the geospace. The latter two satellites, comprising TC-1 and TC-2, are part of the first scientific mission in China to study the Earth's magnetosphere (Liu et al, 2005). As a special feature, the magnetic local time of the Double Star coincides at apogee with that of the Cluster spacecraft.…”