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WindCube

WindCube

MISSION SUMMARY

WindCube is a 6-U CubeSat mission in low earth orbit that will study the influence of thermospheric winds on the earth’s ionosphere. Its scientific payload is a limb-viewing Fabry Perot interferometer for thermospheric wind observation using Doppler shift measurements of the 630.0nm oxygen emission line. WindCube will address a key science goal in the NASA Decadal survey.

SCIENCE OVERVIEW

Thermospheric winds are a critically important parameter for understanding the behavior of the ionosphere from high to low latitudes in large and small spatial scales. The NASA decadal survey states: “Key Science Goal 2. Determine the dynamics and coupling of Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere and their response to solar and terrestrial inputs. The regions of Earth’s space environment are coupled by interactions among neutral gas, electrically charged particles, and plasma waves occurring over a range of spatial and temporal scales. The transport of energy and momentum through this environment exhibits varying degrees of feedback and complexity, requiring research approaches that treat it as a coupled system.” In this coupled system, thermospheric winds react and feed back to the magnetospheric inputs, which are in the form of electric field and ion drift. Thermospheric winds can be reactive by following the ion drift. They can also be proactive. Zonal winds can generate electric fields via dynamo effect. Meridional winds can push the ionosphere upward and downward along the magnetic field lines. Hence, without knowing the thermospheric winds, we cannot understand the ionosphere.

WindCube addresses this urgent need for the thermospheric winds with a 6-U CubeSat version of an optical thermospheric wind instrument, which in the past had to be carried by larger satellite missions. By pointing the instrument in along-track and cross-track directions, we will be able to measure both meridional and zonal winds with accuracy on the order of 5 m/s. WindCube will be in a polar orbit sampling areas beyond what current NASA ICON covers. Because of its relatively low cost and high performance, WindCube can be the base design for future multi-satellite missions such as GDC.

We have identified two scientific research areas for the WindCube project:

Understanding the wind effect on the negative phase expansion during geomagnetic substorms.

Understanding the mesospheric tidal effects on the thermosphere and ionosphere.

WindCube will be a cost effective way to obtain the thermospheric winds, which have been identified as a most critical parameter for understanding magnetosphere ionosphere coupling.

WindCube payload assembly and integration status (31-March-2025).

Flatsat demonstration of payload functional control (October-2025).

HAO Engineer, Liz Bernhardt, leading payload thermal balance testing. (November-2025).

Observation

Mauna Loa Solar Observatory

COSMO

Community Spectro-polarimetric Analysis Center

Fabry-Perot Interferometers

HAO Eclipses

McIntosh Synoptic Map Archive

NCAR Vacuum Tunnel Facility

Solar Maximum Mission

The Sun Today

WindCube

LFDI

Latest WindCube News

November, 2025: Successful completion of payload thermal balance testing.

August, 2025: Delivery of flight model camera systems from XCAM.

July, 2024: Critical Design Review.

January, 2024: Space Inventor and HAO conducted a Preliminary Design Review for the spacecraft bus and avionics systems.

August, 2023: Initiated partnership with Space Inventor for the procurement of the WindCube spacecraft bus and mission operations support.

April, 2023: Initiated partnership with XCAM Ltd. for the development of the WindCube camera system.

March, 2023: Passed System Requirements Review and NASA Key Decision Point.

NASA Selects 4 CubeSats for Space Weather Tech Development

Four CubeSats – CubIXSS, SunCET, DYNAGLO, and WindCube – have been selected by NASA’s Heliophysics Flight Opportunities in Research and Technology program in cooperation with NASA’s Space Weather Science Application. Together, they will comprise a first-generation testbed for space weather innovation through small satellites.

NCAR’s New Mini-Satellite Will Measure Howling Winds High in Earth’s Atmosphere

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has received $6.5 million in funding from NASA to launch a roughly shoebox-sized satellite into space carrying an instrument designed to measure the howling thermospheric winds, which can gust more than 300 miles per hour through the highest reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere.

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This material is based upon work supported by the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

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