EQUARS

EQUARS [INPE]

EQUARS (Equatorial Atmosphere Research Satellite) was a mission to monitor Earth's equatorial low, middle and upper atmosphere and ionosphere on a global scale, with a special emphasis in dynamical and photochemical energy transport processes.

Real-time monitoring of the tropospheric water vapor, stratospheric temperature profile and total electron contents (TEC) in the ionosphere by the GPS occultation measurements will make it possible to carry on high quality numerical weather and climate predictions and space weather forecasting. In order to achieve it, close collaborative operation with the COSMIC project is proposed.

EQUARS features following instruments.

• GPS-IGOR: GPS Receiver
• GWIM: Airglow Imager
• MLTM: Temperature Imager
• ALIS: Sprite Imager
• IONEX: HFC, LP, ETP Sensors
• ELISA: Eletrostatic Energy Analyser
• CERTO: Beacon Transmitter
• APEX: Particle Detector

Equars has been combined with MIRAX to a joint satellite called LATTES.