Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Andriopoulou, M.
• Nakamura, R.
• Torkar, K.
• Baumjohann, W.
• Torbert, R. B.
• Lindqvist, P.-A.
• Khotyaintsev, Y. V.
• Dorelli, John Charles
• Burch, J. L.
• Russell, C. T.

Titel

Study of the Spacecraft Potential Under Active Control and Plasma Density Estimates During the MMS Commissioning Phase

Ist Teil von

• Geophysical research letters, 2016-05, Vol.43 (10), p.4858-4864

Ort / Verlag

Goddard Space Flight Center: American Geophysical Union

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley Online Library Journals Frontfile Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Each spacecraft of the recently launched magnetospheric multiscale MMS mission is equipped with Active Spacecraft Potential Control (ASPOC) Instruments, which control the spacecraft potential in order to reduce spacecraft charging effects. ASPOC typically reduces the spacecraft potential to a few volts. On several occasions during the commissioning phase of the mission, the ASPOC instruments were operating only on one spacecraft at a time. Taking advantage of such intervals, we derive photoelectron curves and also perform reconstructions of the uncontrolled spacecraft potential for the spacecraft with active control and estimate the electron plasma density during those periods. We also establish the criteria under which our methods can be applied.