Satellite takes AIM at Earth’s highest clouds

Scanning the mesosphere
The 430-pound (195-kilogram) AIM spacecraft carries three primary tools to scan the highest clouds on the planet:

The Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) is laden with four cameras, each positioned at a different angle, to return two-dimensional images at noctilucent clouds that are expected to yield sizes for the ice particles in each formation and generate a daily panorama of the polar ice cap.

The Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) is designed to measure the particles, temperatures atmospheric gases that make up each cloud to reveal their chemical composition and formation environment.

The Cosmic Dust Experiment is designed to record the amount of interstellar dust that enters the Earth’s atmosphere so researchers can study its role in noctilucent cloud formation.

Together, the instruments are designed to tackle six primary target areas that include long-term changes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, temperature variations, hydrogen chemistry, and the influence of gravity waves on cloud formation. They will scan clouds in the Earth’s mesosphere, a region of the atmosphere that sits above the stratosphere.

The spacecraft relies on six solar panels, wrapped around the probe at launch, to generate the 216 watts of power required to support its science instruments.

“The whole deployment sequence takes about 20 minutes,” said Chris Savinell, NASA’s AIM mission manager at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a preflight briefing.

AIM is one of NASA’s Small Explorer missions designed to develop relatively low-cost space science and exploration expeditions.

"This Small Explorer mission is a good example of the huge science returns we can get for a relatively small cost investment," said Vicki Elsbernd, NASA’s AIM program executive, in a statement.

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