The aim of the Cluster mission is to separate temporal and spatial variations of the parameters measured in the Earth's plasma environment. Full three-dimensional spatial separation requires at least four spacecraft . This is the purpose of the Cluster mission.
The original Cluster mission and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) together comprised the Solar Terrestrial Science Programme (STSP), the first 'Cornerstone' of ESA's Horizons 2000 Programme. These two missions were selected at the same time to investigate the relation between the Sun and the Earth's environment. SOHO was successfully launched in December 1995, and has been provided fascinating new information on the effect of the Sun and the solar wind on the Earth's magnetosphere.
The four identical Cluster-1 spacecraft were launched simultaneously on June 4 1998. Following failure of the launch vehicule, the Cluster-II mission was formally approved in April 1997, with a payload nearly identical to that of Cluster-I. These spacecraft were lauched two by two on July 16 and August 09 2000, and achieved perfect injection. After orbital maneuvres and a three-month period of commissionning, the science operations officially started on February 1, 2001. Since then the original STSP objectives are being fulfilled, and both the SOHO and Cluster mission lifetimes having been extended.
Information about the mission is provided, for example, in the Users Guide to the Cluster Science Data System.
Following their successful launch, each spacecraft was assigned the name of a modern dance. These names are sometimes used in publications. Cluster 1, or Rumba, is Flight Model 5, which was the flight spare spacecraft remaining from Cluster-1. The other three models were specially constructed for Cluster-2. When representing data from more than one spacecraft, different colour coding, linestyle or symbols may be used to distinguish the data. The following representations were recommented by the Cluster Science Working Team and are widely followed in publications :
C1 Rumba Black Solid Cross or Square FM5
C2 Salsa Red Dashed Plus or Diamond FM6
C3 Samba Green Dotted Asterisk or Circle FM7
C4 Tango Magenta Dash-dot-dot-dot Star or Triangle FM8
Version:2.4.0
The aim of the Cluster mission is to separate temporal and spatial variations of the parameters measured in the Earth's plasma environment. Full three-dimensional spatial separation requires at least four spacecraft . This is the purpose of the Cluster mission.
The original Cluster mission and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) together comprised the Solar Terrestrial Science Programme (STSP), the first 'Cornerstone' of ESA's Horizons 2000 Programme. These two missions were selected at the same time to investigate the relation between the Sun and the Earth's environment. SOHO was successfully launched in December 1995, and has been provided fascinating new information on the effect of the Sun and the solar wind on the Earth's magnetosphere.
The four identical Cluster-1 spacecraft were launched simultaneously on June 4 1998. Following failure of the launch vehicule, the Cluster-II mission was formally approved in April 1997, with a payload nearly identical to that of Cluster-I. These spacecraft were lauched two by two on July 16 and August 09 2000, and achieved perfect injection. After orbital maneuvres and a three-month period of commissionning, the science operations officially started on February 1, 2001. Since then the original STSP objectives are being fulfilled, and both the SOHO and Cluster mission lifetimes having been extended.
Information about the mission is provided, for example, in the Users Guide to the Cluster Science Data System.
Following their successful launch, each spacecraft was assigned the name of a modern dance. These names are sometimes used in publications. Cluster 1, or Rumba, is Flight Model 5, which was the flight spare spacecraft remaining from Cluster-1. The other three models were specially constructed for Cluster-2. When representing data from more than one spacecraft, different colour coding, linestyle or symbols may be used to distinguish the data. The following representations were recommented by the Cluster Science Working Team and are widely followed in publications :
C1 Rumba Black Solid Cross or Square FM5
C2 Salsa Red Dashed Plus or Diamond FM6
C3 Samba Green Dotted Asterisk or Circle FM7
C4 Tango Magenta Dash-dot-dot-dot Star or Triangle FM8
| Role | Person | StartDate | StopDate | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ProjectScientist | spase://CNES/Person/CDPP-Archive/Melvyn.L.Goldstein |