Double Star Status Report - May 2006
The Chinese have reported on the lifetime of TC-2 (nominal end in July 2006), proofing it to be extendable up to end 2006, which would make both TC-1 and TC-2 operate up to end 2006. PIs are looking at the thermal evolution of TC-2 and will confirm if they can operate up to end 2006.
Operations and Archiving
The European Payload Operation System (EPOS) co-ordinates the operations for the seven European instruments on TC-1 and TC-2 and is running smoothly. Data are acquired using the VILSPA 2 ground station and the Chinese stations in Shanghai and Beijing.
Science Highlights
A study on surface waves in the magnetotail was published in the special issue of Annales Geophysicae on Double Star on 8 November 2005, based on simultaneous observations from 5 spacecraft: the Double Star TC-1 and the four Cluster spacecraft. Cluster was able to demonstrate the nature of the surface waves and fully characterise them, and Double Star, 30 000 km away, could show that this was a large scale phenomena taking place over a large region of the magnetotail. A web story was published on both this website and the ESA main portal site.