Mass Spectrometry of the Turbopause Region (MSTR)

The turbopause region remains one of the most poorly explored, yet crucial regions of the upper atmosphere. In the vicinity of this altitude, the atmosphere reaches its lowest temperature and the compositional structure changes from being governed by turbulent mixing processes to diffusive processes. Dynamical energy in the form of tides, as well as gravity and planetary waves, propagate from the lower atmosphere to the ionosphere and thermosphere, through the turbopause. Downward transport of energy and reactive chemical species from this region across the turbopause has significant impacts on the composition at lower altitudes. This altitude region has become increasingly important in the last decade as significant stratospheric ozone loss has been observed, which is thought to be linked to downward transport of Nitric Oxide (NO) produced in the lower thermosphere by Energetic Particles Precipitation (EPP) during the polar night. Interestingly, in the northern hemisphere this linkage is only partially controlled by geomagnetic activity level; it is also controlled by the strength of transport across the turbopause. Few measurement techniques work well at this altitude, and it is too low for satellites. Major species with relatively large abundances, such as O2, O, and CO2, are all poorly understood at these altitudes. While there are several experiments that measure temperature, the uncertainties in the measurements are large because the observation techniques rely on prior knowledge of CO2, or O2 densities. The lack of composition information hinders those observations that do occur near the turbopause and mesopause, resulting in an overall poor understanding of this region. Addressing the knowledge gap associated with this region hence requires making composition measurements aided by strong modeling efforts. We propose to take a major step forward by making composition measurements in the 80 to 120 km altitude region via multiple rocket flights as part of the Mass Spectrometry of the Turbopause Region (MSTR) mission. As a first step in this mission, we propose the development of a cryogenic Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (TOF-MS). This technique has heritage, and the instrument development will be guided by the overarching goal to obtain volume density measurements of CO2, O2, N2, O, and NO as a function of altitude from 80 to 120 km. These measurements are in support of three science objectives: 1. Understanding Turbopause altitude and structure, 2. Comparison of measured CO2 profiles with those retrieved by IR radiometry, and 3. Measuring transport of NO across the Turbopause. The MSTR instrument will focus on observations of CO2 and O2 densities to determine the transition from a well- mixed atmosphere to one in diffusive equilibrium, validate existing measurements of CO2 profiles, help tune empirical atmospheric models such as the Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) experiment, and provide insight into processes that couple the upper and middle atmosphere, and how space weather drives this coupling. The development of the MSTR instrument will occur over a three year period. During the first year, we will focus on an iterative design process involving the assembly of the TOF-MS components and testing its performance to guide the design and development of the cryogenic jacket required during flight. In the second year, we will finalize the design of the instrument and perform thermal modeling and testing, concluding with testing the fully assembled cryogenically cooled TOF-MS with static gas and gas mixtures. In year three, we will test the fully assembled cryogenically cooled TOF-MS instrument with a molecular beam that mimics the molecular composition and velocities that will be seen during flight, and well as publish our findings detailing the construction and performance of the instrument.

Support NASA's Heliophysics strategic science objectives to understand the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, including space weather. This will be achieved by developing/demonstrating instrumentation technology necessary to address the following science goals: Explore the physical processes in the space environment from the Sun to the Earth and throughout the solar system; Advance our understanding of the connections that link the Sun, the Earth, planetary space environments, and the outer reaches of our solar system; Develop the knowledge and capability to detect and predict extreme conditions in space to protect life and society and to safeguard human and robotic explorers beyond Earth.

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