Space Physics Seminar winter-2015

The Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE) is a 3U CubeSat designed, built, tested, and operated by students at the University of Colorado. CSSWE was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in September, 2012; its fully successful mission currently ongoing and overlapping with the Van Allen Probes, THEMIS, and BARREL. Onboard CSSWE is a particle telescope designed to measure energetic particles in Earth's magnetosphere, such as electrons in the outer radiation belt. From its low altitude, high inclination orbit, CSSWE observes the particles as they precipitate into Earth's atmosphere. The low altitude measurements, in conjunction with equatorial observations, are used to better understand the competing loss and source processes that make the outer radiation belt a dynamic, unpredictable region.