Study of the spacecraft potential under active control and plasma density estimates during the MMS commissioning phaseShow others and affiliations
2016 (English)In: Geophysical Research Letters, ISSN 0094-8276, E-ISSN 1944-8007, Vol. 43, no 10, p. 4858-4864Article in journal (Refereed) Published
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Text
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 43, no 10, p. 4858-4864
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-299791DOI: 10.1002/2016GL068529ISI: 000378347500024OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-299791DiVA, id: diva2:950158
2016-07-282016-07-272017-11-28Bibliographically approved