Preliminary summary
The window began at the nominal start time of 0400 UT. Auroral
conditions were moderately active overnight. The solar wind
magnetic field was mostly southward and the solar wind speed was
faster at 420-460 km/s. The winds at Andoya Rocket Range were
favorable. The weather at Longyearbyen was Ny Alesund was clear
with occasional low clouds. Magnetic activity was moderate
during the window and Kp was 2. Launch conditions from the
viewpoint of geomagnetic activity became favorable at about 0530
UT. At that time the decision to raise the payload to vertical
was made and the count was advanced to T-8min. The decision to
launch was taken at the auroral station at 0555 UT and after a
brief pause for fishing boats CAPER was launched at 6:13:30 UT.
All instruments on the payload functioned nominally and the
initial data analysis indicated that the payload encountered
multiple auroral arcs, regions of accelerated ions, and strong
electric field activity. The CAPER apogee was 1360 km, about 20
km higher than predicted. EISCAT Svalbard operated in the
field-aligned mode. EISCAT in Tromso operated the VHF radar in
the split beam mode looking northward. Polar UVI and VIS data
were acquired during launch. The launch decision was also aided
by the ACE real time solar wind data and the NOAA Space
Environment Center real time space weather data, especially GOES
data.
We wish to thank all of the many dedicated and talented
individuals who contributed to the CAPER project and it success.
CAPER was funded by NASA and launched in collaboration with the
Norwegian Space Agency, Andoya Rocket Range, UNIS, University of
Oslo and our gracious Norwegian hosts. The GSFC/Wallops Flight
Facility project manager was Dave Moltedo.
Paul Kintner,
Professor and Associate Director of Electrical Engineering
221 Phillips Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
email: paul@ee.cornell.edu