BackForward Satellite Programme: Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms 

Programme details
Programme description
  • Formation of 5 satellites, for observation of the magnetosphere.
  • NASA programme with support from several collaborating institutes.  NASA/GSFC responsible of the programme, SSL (Space Sciences Laboratory) of the University of California, Berkeley, responsible of science management.
  • The satellite stabilisation is by spin.
  • The design lifetime is 2 years.
  • The five satellites are flown aligned along the Magnetoshere tail, in highly elliptical orbits with inclinations in the range 4.5-9-0°.
  • For details, see http://www.nasa.gov/themis.
Data circulation
  • All operations managed by NASA/GSFC by exploiting the international Deep Space Network Data Downlink.
  • Data processing is performed by the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), Berkeley.
Agencies NASA
Programme lifetime 2007 - 2021
Associated satellites and instruments

Note: red tag => no longer operational , green tag => operational , blue tag => planned