CASPER: A Space Mission Concept to Investigate Transient Luminous Events and Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes [* Cross-Reference *]

These lightning-related plasma phenomena, first detected on Earth in 1989, typically occur in the mesosphere at an altitude between 50-100 km. The UVS instrument onboard the JUNO mission detected several similar events on Jupiter, and they are expected to also occur on other planets.The CASPER mission consists of two identical spacecraft, each of which will be equipped with three cameras in different wavelengths and four high speed sensors, the latter will function as triggers to start the data acquisition of higher resolution images.

A system chosen to combat the transient characteristic of the events (lifetime < 300 ms). While three sensors will be taking measurements of photons, one will quantify the electron flux in order to constrain the role of TLEs and TGFs in the global electric circuit.The second great area of interest is the vertical structure of TLEs as well as their global distribution and occurrence rates. To achieve this, data will be captured using a two-satellite train in a sun-synchronous low earth orbit.