Scientific Objectives of the Able-3 Program

The purpose of the Able-3 program is to place a scientific observatory in a highly elliptic satellite orbit. A scintillation counter, ion chamber, Geiger counter, and proportional counter telescope in the payload permit comprehensive mapping of corpuscular radiation over a large volume of the geomagnetic region, including the Van Allen radiation belts. Simultaneously, the fundamental static quantities, electron density, and vector magnetic intensity are to be measured. A VLF experiment is included to measure upper atmosphere VLF noise and to study the propagation characteristic of VLF between the ground and the satellite. A radio scintillation experiment using radio telescopes will measure the effects of ionospheric irregularities on amplitude and phase. Micrometeorite detection equipment in the payload provides a two-point momentum spectrum of micrometeorites encountered, and an image scanner is included to examine reflection characteristics of the earth.