The Plasma and SupraThermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) Instrument: Final Diagnostic Development Phase for the STEREO Mission

Physics

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2111 Ejecta, Driver Gases, And Magnetic Clouds, 2118 Energetic Particles, Solar, 2152 Pickup Ions, 2164 Solar Wind Plasma, 2194 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

The PLAsma and SupraThermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) instrument project is entering the final phases of instrument development prior to integration with the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft in early 2005. The STEREO mission will provide a unique opportunity to investigate the 3-dimensional structure of the heliosphere, with particular focus on the origin, evolution, and propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). The mission also seeks to determine the sites and mechanisms of energetic particle acceleration as well as develop a 3-D time-dependent understanding of the ambient solar wind properties. As one of four STEREO instrument packages coordinating remote sensing and in situ measurements, the PLASTIC instruments will diagnose properties of the solar wind and suprathermal protons, alphas, and heavy ions. PLASTIC will determine bulk solar wind plasma parameters (density, velocity, temperature, temperature anisotropy, and alpha/proton ratio) and the distribution functions of major heavy solar wind ions in the energy per charge range 0.25-100keV/e. A full characterization of the solar wind and suprathermal ions will be achieved with a system that measures ion energy per charge (E/q), ion velocity distribution (ěc v), and ion energy (E). Two identical PLASTIC instruments located on the separate spacecraft will provide in situ plasma measurements in order to study physical processes low in the corona and in the inner heliosphere. Elemental and charge state abundances provide tracers of the ambient coronal plasma, fractionated populations from coronal and heliospheric events, and local source populations of energetic particle acceleration. In this presentation, the PLASTIC operation principles and aims will be presented along with a review of development status and current instrument calibration results.

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