Dartmouth Events

Abstract: The NASA Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) series, launched in the late 1960s, provided the first opportunities to make measurements of the energetic particle environment at geosynchronous altitude. The ATS spacecraft were followed by a series of satellites leading up to the current Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system (GOES) operated by NOAA. The GOES system supports weather forecasting and is used for land, atmosphere, ocean, and climate research. The GOES system is also used for monitoring the near-earth space environment. The currently operated GOES-13, -14, and -15 space environment monitoring (SEM) instruments include a magnetometer, a high energy proton and alpha detector (HEPAD), and an energetic particles sensor (EPS). Observations at geosynchronous play an important role in the study of energetic particle populations in the magnetosphere. GOES spacecraft are ideally stationed for 1) making in-situ observations of the source populations for the ring current and outer electron belts, and 2) studying geomagnetic shielding of solar energetic particles. The first of the new GOES-R series spacecraft (GOES-16, -17, -18, -19) is scheduled for launch on 13 Oct 2016. The GOES-R series instrumentation includes the Space Environment In‐Situ Suite (SEISS), with increased resolution and energy coverage over previous GOES energetic particle detectors. An overview of past, present and future GOES energetic particle observations, and the science they support, will be presented.