Daniel Baker, director of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will give a talk Feb. 17 on a satellite under construction that will study the Van Allen radiation belts girdling Earth.
The $12.8 million project, known as the Inner Magnetosphere Explorer, or IMEX, will be designed, built and operated by LASP in cooperation with the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The talk is part of the K.D. Wood Colloquium sponsored by the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Free and open to the public, the talk will be held in ECCR 245 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
IMEX will study the energetic charged particles -- primarily protons and electrons -- that comprise Earth's radiation zones and which are potentially hazardous to both astronauts and satellite systems. Baker will focus on the scientific goals, technical approaches and educational opportunities of IMEX.
The Van Allen belts were discovered in 1958 by James Van Allen, a distinguished American physicist who identified two main regions in Earth's magnetosphere that contained intense concentrations of charged particles.
IMEX will carry instruments to measure the populations of energetic particles and related magnetic and electrical fields throughout Earth's radiation belts. The data should lead to significant improvements in our ability to predict hazardous conditions in Earth's environment and in understanding the physical processes that connect the solar wind with the behavior of the Van Allen Belts.
The IMEX spacecraft was one of two space satellites selected by NASA as part of the agency's University-Class Explorer program, designed to provide frequent flight opportunities for focused and relatively inexpensive science missions under $13 million in cost. The program is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for NASA's Office of Space Science.