ERG – A small-satellite mission to investigate the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere

The Earth’s inner magnetosphere (inside 10 Re) is a region where particle energy increases to the relativistic energy range. This region is very important as a laboratory where high-energy particle acceleration can be directly measured in a dipolar field configuration, as well as for human activities in space including space weather prediction. Despite abundant in situ satellite measurements, this region has been “missing” because of several difficulties arising from the measurements, such as high-energy particle contamination of low-energy particle measurement, protection against the possible incidence of radiation belt particles on the satellite, and the difficulties of measuring three-dimensional particles over a broad energy range, from a few electron volts to more than 10 MeV. In this paper, we address important scientific topics and propose a possible configuration of small satellites termed Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG), which would provide new insights into the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere and strongly contribute to the International Living With a Star project.