The exosphere is the outermost layer of the Earth's atmosphere.

Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will study the geocorona, the outermost region of the Earth's atmosphere where gas is so diffuse that particles rarely collide. The exosphere is primarily composed of atomic hydrogen (H) and is the pathway for permanent loss of Earth's H to space. Carruthers is equipped to two ultraviolet (UV) cameras which will capture exospheric UV emission in unprecedented detail. Carruthers has two primary science objectives:

What physical processes control the shape and distribution of the exosphere?
How does the exosphere respond to transient geomagnetic storms?

Earth-facing side of spacecraft showing bus (bottom) and instrumentation (top)

Mission Specifications

Objective	Earth exosphere (geocorona)
Orbit	Halo orbit around Lagrange point L1
Instruments	Wide-field Imager (WFI) Narrow-field Imager (NFI) Carruthers Observatory Student Solar MOnitor (COSSMO)

Carruthers orbit around L1 and imager FOV