University  of Calgary
CaNoSat-1:  Low-altitude Causes of Ion Upflow — PI: Dr. Johnathan Kerr  Burchill. A significant  quantity of Earth's upper atmosphere escapes to space each year in the form of  an upper-atmospheric polar "planetary wind." Generally, these winds  can alter planetary atmospheres on geological timescales. The  main objectives of this project are to develop a mini plasma imager, which is a  miniaturized particle sensor designed to measure ionized winds and temperatures  from nanosatellites; and train students in experimental space physics. This  project will increase scientific  knowledge of the physics of Earth's magnetic cusp region, which will lead to  better space weather forecasts. A concrete application that could derive  from this project is a flight of the mini plasma imager on a nanosatellite  mission such as CaNoSat-1 .