International audienceOn December 2010 the implementation phase of the TARANIS micro-satellite was authorized by the French space agency. TARANIS is dedicated to the study of impulsive transfers of energy between the Earth atmosphere and the space environment, and more precisely to the physics of the Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) and of the Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes (TGFs). By 2015 TARANIS will provide combined Nadir observations of TLEs and TGFs, high resolution measurements of energetic electrons, and wave field measurements. The strategy adopted to maximize the scientific return of the data is presented

Blanc, E.

Parrot, Michel

Pinçon, Jean-Louis

Rauch, Jean-Louis

Savaud, J.A.

English

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TARANIS - Scientific payload and mission strategy
Jean-Louis Pinçon, E. Blanc, P.L. Blelly, Michel Parrot, Jean-Louis Rauch,
J.A. Savaud, Elena Seran
To cite this version:
Jean-Louis Pinçon, E. Blanc, P.L. Blelly, Michel Parrot, Jean-Louis Rauch, et al.. TARANIS - Scien-
tific payload and mission strategy. 2011 XXXth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium,
Apr 2011, Istambul, Turkey. ￿insu-01555806￿
TARANIS - scientific payload and mission strategy  
 
J.-L. Pinçon1, E. Blanc2, P-L Blelly3, M. Parrot1, J-L Rauch1, J-A Savaud3, and E. Séran4 
 
1LPC2E, University of Orléans - CNRS, 3A av. Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orléans, France.  
jlpincon@cnrs-orleans.fr, mparrot@cnrs-orleans.fr, Jean-Louis.rauch@cnrs-orleans.fr 
 
2DASE/LDG, CEA Bruyères-le-Châtel, 91297 Arpajon, France. Elisabeth.Blanc@cea.fr 
 
3URAP, University of Toulouse – CNRS, 9 av. Colonel Roche, 31028 Toulouse, France.  
Pierre-Louis.Blelly@cesr.fr, Jean-Andre.Sauvaud@cesr.fr 
 
4LATMOS, IPSL – CNRS, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France. Elena.Seran@latmos.ipsl.fr  
 
Abstract 
 
 On December 2010 the implementation phase of the TARANIS micro-satellite was authorized by the French 
space agency. TARANIS is dedicated to the study of impulsive transfers of energy between the Earth atmosphere 
and the space environment, and more precisely to the physics of the Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) and of the 
Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes (TGFs). By 2015 TARANIS will provide combined Nadir observations of TLEs and 
TGFs, high resolution measurements of energetic electrons, and wave field measurements. The strategy adopted to 
maximize the scientific return of the data is presented. 
 
1. Introduction 
 
 In Celtic mythology Taranis was the god of thunder. The mission TARANIS (Tool for the Analysis of 
RAdiation from lightNIng and Sprites) is funded and operated by the French space agency CNES. This is a low 
altitude satellite to be launched by 2015 and dedicated to the study of impulsive transfers of energy between the 
Earth atmosphere and the space environment. Such impulsive transfers, pointed out by the observation at ground and 
on satellite (FORMOSAT 2) [1] of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) and the detection on satellites (BATSE, 
RHESSI, Fermi-GBM, Agile) [2 – 5] of Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes (TGFs), are observed above active stormy 
areas and appear to be correlated to lightning activity. To answer the numerous remaining questions about the 
physics of TLEs and TGFs, the TARANIS mission will provide a set of unprecedented and complementary 
measurements [6]. Specific examples include:  
•  Combined images of TLEs and TGFs (through fast micro-cameras and photometers, nadir-viewing and X-ray 
and Gamma-ray measurements) and the associated measurements of relativistic electrons and wave fields;  
•  High resolution measurement of energetic electrons in energy, pitch angle and time allowing to detect 
runaway electrons as well as Lightning-induced Electron Precipitation and to track natural and man-made controlled 
variability of the radiation belts;  
•  Onboard wave field measurements in a frequency range running from DC to 30 MHz allowing to record 
radio signatures of optical and particle transient phenomena and to detect the presence of quasi-electrostatic 
thundercloud fields. . 
 
2. TARANIS mission profile 
 
 TARANIS belongs to the CNES Myriade microsatellite family. It is a three axis stabilized satellite. The 
dimension of the platform is about 1m3. The total weight is around 150 kg, including about 35 kg for the scientific 
payload. The microsatellite subsystems include a mass memory of 16-Gbits capacity, a high rate X band telemetry 
(16.8 Mbits/s) for the transmission of the scientific data. TARANIS will be a two-year mission with a four-year 
mission as an objective. It will fly in a polar Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) with an inclination of 98° and an altitude 
close to 700 km. TARANIS is will be launched in 2015 from Kourou as a piggy-back on a Soyouz rocket. 
Practically, this means a SSO orbit with a local time in the range [22H30 – 02H00] and no local time drift during the 
mission. Due to limitations in the power budget, in particular for the night time orbits, the scientific experiments will 
be switched off at high geographical latitudes (below −60◦ and above 60◦) during the nominal operation modes. 
978-1-4244-6051-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
However, this limitation will have almost no impact regarding the coverage of regions where lightning activity is 
strong and therefore where the probability of observations of TLEs or/and TGFs is high. To allow the comparison 
with ground based measurements the absolute time accuracy onboard will be less than 1ms. The spacecraft pointing 
accuracy is such that TLEs and lightning will be localized with an error equal or less than 5 km. Due to the available 
mass memory and X band telemetry, 4 GByte of data will be downloaded per day. The emphasis is put on 
synchronized observations of TLEs and TGF (Event Mode). Data will be transmitted to the ground at least twice per 
day. The TARANIS mission Centre will be developed and operated by the Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de 
l’Espace et de l'Environnement (LPC2E).  
 
3. TARANIS scientific objectives 
 
 TARANIS aims at providing a sufficiently complete package of novel instrumentation to answer specific 
questions raised by the many ground-based campaigns to observe TLEs, and by the highly successful FORMOSAT 
2 and RHESSI missions. The science objectives of the TARANIS mission are into three broad categories:  
•  Advance physical understanding of the links between TLEs and TGFs, in their source regions, and the 
environmental conditions (lightning activity, variations in the thermal plasma, occurrence of extensive atmospheric 
showers, etc);  
•  Identify the generation mechanisms for TLEs and TGFs and, in particular, the particle and wave field events 
which are involved in the generation processes or which are produced by the generation processes; 
•  Evaluate the potential effects of TLEs, TGFs, and bursts of precipitated and accelerated electrons (in 
particular lightning induced electron precipitation and runaway electron beams) on the Earth atmosphere or on the 
radiation belts.  
 
To achieve these scientific objectives, the questions to be addressed are:  
 1. TLEs and TGFs observations  
 2. Environmental conditions  
 3. Energy transfer between the radiation belts and the Atmosphere  
 4. Generation mechanisms for TLEs, TGFs, and runaway electron beams  
 5. Effect on the Atmosphere and on the global electric circuit  
 
4. TARANIS scientific payload and accommodation 
 
 The instruments of the scientific payload required to achieve the scientific objectives of the TARANIS are 
described in Table 1 and their accommodation onboard the spacecraft is given by Figure 1. 
 
Table 1: scientific payload of TARANIS 
  Instrument PI, organizations 
MCP: 
 lightning micro-camera 
 TLE micro-camera 
 4 Photometers 
 PI: E. Blanc, CEA/LDG (F) + Hokkaido Univ. ( J) 
XGRE: 
 3 X and γ detectors 
 - Photons : [20keV – 10MeV] 
 - Relativistic e-: [1 MeV – 10 MeV]
 PI: P-L. Blelly, IRAP (F) + APC (F) 
IDEE:  2 e- detectors: [70keV – 4MeV] PI: J-A. Sauvaud, IRAP (F) + Prague Univ. (Cz) 
IMM: 
 triaxial search coil : [5Hz – 20kHz] 
 search coil MF : [10kHz – 1MHz] 
 zero plus whistler detector 
PI: J-L. Pinçon, LPC2E (F) + Stanford Univ. (USA) 
IME-BF:  LF-E antenna : [DC – 1MHz]  Ion probe PI: E. Seran, LATMOS (F) + GSFC (USA) 
IME-HF:  HF-E antenna: [100kHz – 35MHz] PI: J-L. Rauch, LPC2E (F) + Prague Univ., IAP (Cz)   
MEXIC:  Power/Management of the payload PI: M. Parrot, LPC2E (F) + SRC (Pl) 
  
 
 
 
Figure 1. Scientific payload accommodation onboard TARANIS 
 
4. TARANIS strategy 
 
 To maximize the scientific return of the data collected by TARANIS, the scientific payload is operated as a 
single instrument. The strategy adopted is twofold: a continuous monitoring of low resolution optical, field and 
particle data is performed and transmitted (the survey mode). Under alert, all TARANIS instrument analyzers will 
initiate a synchronized high resolution data mode (the event mode). Each analyzer includes memory to store high 
resolution data for a time interval including the event detection time.  
 
 The Event data are on-board recorded on triggering alerts only. The alert signals will be generated by the 
photometers (MCP-PH), the gamma detectors (XGRE), the electron detectors (IDEE), or the HF wave sensor (IME-
HF). All the event management is made by MEXIC. To identify an electromagnetic signature associated with TGFs 
and TLEs, the parent lightning, a possible relationship between TGFs and TLEs, or an associated relativistic run-
away electron beam, it is mandatory to collect simultaneously high resolution data from all TARANIS instruments. 
The relative time accuracy between TARANIS instruments will be less than 10 ns, allowing meaningful inter-
comparison of the data sets. To allow the comparison with ground based and balloon measurements the absolute 
time accuracy onboard will be less than 1 ms. The available onboard mass memory and telemetry available are such 
that up to about 2 GB of high-resolution data (event mode) will be downloaded per day. 
 
5. Conclusion 
 
 The physics of thunderstorm effects on atmosphere-ionosphere coupling is a research domain that involves a 
large, multidisciplinary, and very active scientific community from many countries. By 2005, the scientific payload 
of TARANIS and the data measurement strategy adopted for the project will provide the scientific community with 
all the necessary inputs to solve the remaining issues about the physics of TLEs and TGFs.  
 
6. References 
 
1. A.. B. Chen, C. L. Kuo, Y. J. Lee, H. T. Su, R. R. Hsu, J. L. Chem, H. U. Frey, S. B. Mende, Y. Takahashi, H. 
Fukunishi, Y. S. Chang, T. Y. Liu, and L. C. Lee, Global distributions and occurrence rates of transient luminous 
events, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 113, A08306, doi: 10.1029/2008JA013101, 2008. 
MCP - PH 
IMM 
IME-HF 
IME-BF 
IDEE 
XGRE
Earth 
Ion 
Probe 
MCP - MC
 
2. G. J. Fishman, P. N. Bhat, R. Mallozzi, J. M. Horack, T. Koshut, C. Kouveliotou, G. N. Pendleton, C. A. Meegan, 
R. B. Wilson, W. S. Paciesas, S. J. Goodman, and H. J. Christian, Discovery of intense gamma-ray flashes of 
atmospheric origin, Science, Vol. 264, 1313-1316, doi: 10.1126/science.264.5163.1313, 1994.  
 
3. D. M. Smith, L. I. Lopez, R. P. Lin, and C. P. Barrington-Leigh, Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes Observed up to 
20 MeV, Science, Vol. 307, 1085-1088, 2005. 
 
4. M. S. Briggs, G. J. Fishman, and Fermi-GBM Team, First results on terrestrial gamma ray flashes from the Fermi 
Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 115, A07323, doi: 10.1029/2009JA015242, 2010.  
 
8. M. Marisaldi, and AGILE Team, Detection of terrestrial gamma ray flashes up to 40 MeV by the AGILE satellite, 
J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 115, A00E13, doi: 10.1029/2009JA014502, 2010. 
 
6. F. Lefeuvre, E. Blanc, J-L Pinçon, R. Roussel-Dupré, D. Lawrence, J-A Sauvaud, J-L Rauch, H. de Feraudy, and 
D. Lagoutte, TARANIS — A Satellite Project Dedicated to the Physics of TLEs and TGFs, Space Sci. Rev., Vol. 
137, 301–315, doi; 10.1007/s11214-008-9414-4, 2008. 
 


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