DART

The Dual Aperture Relativistic Telescope (DART) is a miniaturized solid-state charged particle telescope whose objective is to measure differential energy of energetic electrons in two look directions, 180 degrees apart, in order to characterize and quantify particles precipitating into the atmosphere and those returning back up the magnetic field line.

Design work started in August of 2021 as the next iteration of the CSSWE CubeSat. It’s assembly was finalized in July of 2023. The instrument is now fully assembled and waiting for launch in 2025.

Key questions that DART will address:

a) Evaluate energy distribution properties of the electrons flowing upward and downward along the magnetic field to compare with predictions in these simulations. Additionally, these populations can contribute to wave-particle interactions and are thus important to include them in simulations (Mourenas et al., 2021).

b) Measure and model the effect of EPP on the atmosphere is necessary to asses to what degree it influences O3 changes (Damiani et al., 2016). The underestimation of EPP-induced NOx by some models, such as WACCM, leads to inconsistencies with the observed NOx flux that may descend to the stratosphere (Natarajan et al., 2004). Accurate specification of the EPP flux, such as energy distribution, made by DART will be important to implement into atmospheric models to more accurately track O3 depletion. A quantification of backscattered population, as a function of electron energy and spacecraft altitude, will provide critical information about energy deposition of the energetic particles into Earth’s atmosphere.