GOES-12, the last of the GOES-8/9/10/11/12 series of spacecraft was modified to accommodate a Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI). Previous GOES spacecraft X-ray sensors provide only average numerical data flux values. The modifications required to accommodate the SXI impacted nearly every subsystem on the spacecraft. The SXI on GOES-12 has provided the first Solar X-Ray images taken from geostationary orbit. Full-disk solar X-ray images can be collected at approximately one-minute intervals. A combination of exposure time and filter selection will allow the exploration of the full range of solar X-ray features to be covered, including coronal holes, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. The successive integration of the SXI into the GOES-12 X-Ray Positioner, Solar Array Yoke, and Solar Array was accomplished with common test and handling processes. Using the same procedures in both the high bay and thermal vacuum chamber facilities minimized the risk in handling and testing this one of a kind instrument. The GOES-12 spacecraft design incorporated an innovative means to provide a stable sun-pointing platform. The double step "deadbeat" stepping profile actively damps out Solar Array vibrations caused by tracking the Sun with the Solar Array and provides the stability to obtain the detailed images that are displayed on the NOAA/SEC GOES Solar X-ray Imager Web-site, http://www.sec.noaa.gov/sxi/latest.html.
KEYWORDS: Magnetism, Magnetometers, Space operations, Magnetic sensors, Sensors, Data corrections, Temperature metrology, Electronic filtering, Error analysis, Received signal strength
This paper discusses the issues associated with correcting GOES spacecraft magnetometer data for the effects of the spacecraft platform. The effects discussed include: varying fields due to moving permanent magnets, stray spacecraft fields resulting form the flow of electric currents, the effects of spacecraft noise, and magnetometer shift due to temperature. Issues associated with the interpretation of on-orbit data are discussed, and approaches to overcoming these issues are offered. The use of ground processing to compensate for spacecraft magnetic effects is analyzed based on the results from on-orbit data and pre-launch test data. The results form analyzing GOES-8 and GOES-9 on-orbit data indicate that the combined effect of the errors associated with torque current ambiguity, torquer corrections, other uncorrected stray fields, results in a root of the sum of the squares error of 0.4 nT. The most significant concern in achieving high accuracy in magnetic measurements of the Earth's magnetic field with these GOES spacecraft was found to be the control of magnetic contamination on the magnetometer boom.
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