Mass Spectrometry of the Turbopause Region

We present the Mass Spectrometry of the Turbopause Region (MSTR) instrument, a novel, cryogenically cooled Time-Of-Flight mass spectrometer (CTOF-MS) for the first modern, simultaneous composition measurements of O, O2 , N2, NO, CO2, H2O, O3, and Ar, for the Turbopause region, 80-120 km. MSTR is a compact, high-resolution (>3000) TOF-MS payload designed for Small Satellite and sounding rocket platforms. MSTR is currently planned to integrate with a low-altitude sounding rocket and features a helium-cooled cryogenic nose cone that will reduce and collapse the impinging bow shock of the supersonic rocket. The goal of the MSTR program is to directly study, in situ, the chemistry and dynamics of the Turbopause region, which has a profound effect on the global and regional climatological behavior of the thermosphere-ionosphere system and is critical to our understanding of high-altitude weather systems as well as the transport of energy to the lower atmosphere. The MSTR instrument is planned to launch from Poker Flatts during polar winter and will operate coincidentally with ground-based LIDAR and remote sensing overflights from SABER to resolve the complex temporal-spatial dynamics of the Turbopuase. Future flights of the MSTR payload will provide valuable benchmark data to validate Global Circulation Models (GCM) such as WACCM, Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere-Electrodynamics GCM (TIME-GCM), and Whole Atmosphere Model (WAM). The MSTR instrument is a NASA HTIDS-funded technology development effort led by Orion Space Solutions (OSS) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).