AtmOCube: The Atmospheric Oxygen Cubesat Mission for Mesosphere Lower Thermosphere Wave Dynamics

Atmospheric Oxygen CubeSat (AtmOCube) mission will use a single 16U class spacecraft carrying two compact, monolithic Spatial Heterodyne Interferometers (SHIs) configured as limb sounders to determine the temperature changes in 3-D at altitudes of 80-120 km, the observational “gap” in the upper mesosphere-lower thermosphere. From the 3D temperature fields, the AtmOCube mission derives key GW parameters—including full 3D wave vectors, propagation direction, and momentum flux—without requiring coincident wind measurements. The GW momentum fluxes, their directions, and vertical gradients control how wave energy and momentum are deposited into the lower thermosphere and subsequently modulate thermospheric density, composition, and ionospheric structure.
The mission aims to improve understand of how upward-propagating atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) contribute to short-term variability in thermosphere–ionosphere (TI). Global, seasonally resolved constraints on mesoscale GWs in the MLT range are needed. By delivering a global, seasonally resolved climatology of directional mesoscale GW momentum flux and its vertical gradient in the MLT “gap”, AtmOCube provides an operationally relevant constraint to improve whole-atmosphere/TI models and forecasts of drag and GW-driven ionospheric disturbances that affect space assets.
AtmOCube is funded through NASA’s ROSES Heliophysics Flight Opportunities for Research and Technology (H-FORT) program and is implemented by LASP in partnership with FZ Jülich, which provides the SHI payload, calibration, and end-to-end retrieval/data-processing heritage. As a focused demonstration mission, it also de-risks a scalable measurement approach for follow-on satellite constellations that can deliver the cadence needed for operational space-weather services.