ATK MicroSat Constellation Enables NASA To Solve Scientific Mystery

This image shows the 20 THEMIS ASI ground station locations. These ground stations assisted the THEMIS satellite constellation in measuring the Aurora Borealis over North America. Each ground station has an all-sky imaging white-light auroral camera and a magnetometer. The ground stations' radial coverage is rendered at 540km. by Staff Writers Minneapolis MN (SPX) Jul 29, 2008 Alliant Techsystems reports that the constellation of five micro satellites it built for NASA's THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) mission has successfully demonstrated how satellites can work together to collect data, which in this case, advances the scientific understanding of the Earth's atmosphere. The THEMIS mission determined the cause of the shimmering effect of the Aurora Borealis, commonly referred to... [read full story]