Oreol Credit - © Mark Wade

Upper atmosphere, auroral studies. Investigation of physical phenomena in the Earth's upper atmosphere at high latitudes and study of the nature of auroras.

This was a Soviet-French collaborative project, Russian code name Arkad. Launched by Kosmos-2, the spacecraft studied physics and the characteristics of the upper atmosphere. Instruments included Soviet/French magnetosphere and ionosphere experiments, equipment for studying the physical processes in the earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere, and study of the nature of polar aurora.

Typical orbit: 387 x 1697 km, 74 deg inclinaton. Mass: 590 kg (1,300 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Kosmos 11K65M.

• 1971 December 27 - Oreol - Program: Aureole. Launch Site: Plesetsk. Launch Vehicle: Kosmos 3. Mass: 630 kg (1,380 lb). Perigee: 391 km (242 mi). Apogee: 1,779 km (1,105 mi). Inclination: 74.00 deg. Period: 106.90 min.

  Upper atmosphere, auroral studies. Investigation of physical phenomena in the Earth's upper atmosphere at high latitudes and study of the nature of auroras.

• 1973 December 26 - Oreol 2 - Program: Aureole. Launch Site: Plesetsk. Launch Vehicle: Kosmos 3. Mass: 550 kg (1,210 lb). Perigee: 387 km (240 mi). Apogee: 1,441 km (895 mi). Inclination: 74.00 deg. Period: 103.30 min.

  Continued investigations in the earth's upper atmosphere at high latitudes and study of the nature of polar aurorae begun on board the Oreol satellite in 1971.

Bibliography:

Oreol

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page (launch records), Harvard University, 1997-present. Web Address when accessed: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.
• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Web Address when accessed: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.
• Agapov, V, Novosti Kosmonavtiki, "K zapusku pervovo ISZ serii 'DS'", 1997, Issue 6.

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