DSCOVR was launched on 11 February 2015 to a sun–Earth first Lagrange point (L1) orbit, approximately 1.5 million km from Earth toward the sun. Its mission is to provide continuous solar wind measurements for accurate space weather forecasting and to observe the continuously full, sunlit disk of Earth from a new and unique vantage point.
The DSCOVR mission is a joint venture between NOAA, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force. NOAA is operating the spacecraft and performs operational space weather forecasting using the DSCOVR solar wind plasma and interplanetary magnetic field measurements. The Air Force provided the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. NASA built the spacecraft, performed on-orbit checkout, and operates the two Earth-facing science instruments—the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR).
In 1998, Al Gore proposed to the NASA Administrator a mission for a satellite at the Sun-Earth first Lagrange point to observe the whole sunlit side of Earth. This mission was named Triana after the lookout on Christopher Columbus’s fleet, who was reported to be the first to see the ‘new world’. The mission development proceeded for 21 months reaching complete mission integration before it was de-manifested from its original launch vehicle, the Space Shuttle. Then in November 2001, the spacecraft was stored in a clean environment at Goddard.
In 2005, NOAA proposed to refurbish the Triana spacecraft and repurpose it as the replacement of the aging NASA spacecraft that provides space weather forecasting observations in real time. The mission was renamed the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Between 2009 and 2011, NASA funding was used to refurbish and recalibrate the Earth science instruments. DSCOVR has been launched Feb 11, 2015.
Mission Operations
DSCOVR uses the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1 (~1,500,000 km away from Earth) to observe the Earth continuously. From its L1 position, DSCOVR will typically be able to provide 15 to 60 min warning time before the surge of particles and magnetic field, known as a coronal mass ejection (or CME), associated with a geomagnetic storm reaches Earth. DSCOVR data is also used to improve predictions of geomagnetic storm impact locations. The US national security and economic well-being, which depend on advanced technologies, are at risk without these advanced warnings. Some NASA Earth science sensors also rely on space weather data to protect sensitive components.
Instruments
The ASDC hosts the data from the two DSCOVR Earth science sensors:
National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR)
NISTAR is a cavity radiometer measures the absolute spectral irradiance reflected and emitted from the entire sunlit face of the Earth. These measurements improve our understanding of the effects of changes to Earth's reflected and emitted radiation caused by human activities and natural phenomena. This information can be also used for climate science applications.Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC)
EPIC is an imager that provides global spectral images of the entire sunlit face of Earth and insight into Earth's energy balance. EPIC's observations provide a unique angular perspective. The principal EPIC products are total ozone (O3) amount, scene reflectivity, erythemal irradiance, UV and visible aerosol properties, sulfur dioxide (SO2) for volcanic eruptions, surface spectral reflectance, vegetation properties, and cloud products including cloud height.
Data Availability
The production and calibration of DSCOVR EPIC and NISTAR data is on-going. EPIC true color images are publicly available.
