CSES Mission
CSES (China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite)[1] is a Chinese-Italian space mission dedicated to monitoring electromagnetic field and waves, plasma and particles perturbations of the atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere induced by natural sources and anthropocentric emitters and to study their correlations with the occurrence of seismic events. CSES mission will investigate the structure and the dynamic of the topside ionosphere, the coupling mechanisms with the lower and higher plasma layers and the temporal variations of the geomagnetic field, in quiet and disturbed conditions. Data collected by the mission will also allow studying solar-terrestrial interactions and phenomena of solar physics, namely Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), solar flares and cosmic ray solar modulation. They will contribute to provide an observational sharing service for international cooperation and the scientific community.
The satellite mission is part of a collaboration program between the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and developed by China Earthquake Administration (CEA) and Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), together with several Chinese and Italian Universities and research Institutes.
The launch of CSES is scheduled for February 2nd, 2018, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert (Inner Mongolia). Expected lifetime is 5 years.
The Chinese institutes involved in the project are the China China National Space Administration (CNSA), the China Earthquake Administration (CEA), the Lanzhou Institute of Physics (LIP), the Space Star Techonology Co., the DFH Satellite Co., the National Space Science Center (NSSC) and the Centre for Space Science and Applied Research-Chinese Academy of Science (CSSAR-CAS).
Italy participates to the CSES satellite mission with the LIMADOU project - funded by ASI and INFN - through a collaboration that includes the INFN Divisions of Bologna, Naples, Perugia, Roma Tor Vergata, the INFN Center TIFPA of Trento, the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati, the Universities of Bologna, Trento, Roma Tor Vergata, Uninettuno and the Institutes INAF-IAPS (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics and Planetology) and INGV (Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology).
The satellite is based on the Chinese CAST2000 platform. The payload onboard consists of two High-Energy Particle Detectors (HEPD Italian [2], HEPP Chinese [3]) to measure the particle flux and energy spectrum, a Search-Coil Magnetometer (SCM)[4] and a High Precision Magnetometer (HPM)[5] to measure the components and the total intensity of the magnetic field, respectively, an Electric Field Detector (EFD)[6] to measure the electric field, a Plasma analyzer [7] and a Langmuir probe [8] to measure the disturbance of plasma in ionosphere, a GNSS Occultation Receiver [9] and a Tri-Band Beacon [10] to measure the density of electrons.
References
[1] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/
[2] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/30
[3] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/36
[4] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/24
[5] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/36
[6] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/42
[7] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/28
[8] http://cses.roma2.infn.it/node/29