Computer Science – Performance
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm12a..07r&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM12A-07
Computer Science
Performance
0654 Plasmas, 0694 Instruments And Techniques, 2443 Midlatitude Ionosphere, 2467 Plasma Temperature And Density, 2494 Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
High-accuracy, high-cadence measurements of ionospheric electron density between 100 and a few x 106 / cc and electron temperature from 200 K to a few thousand K are of critical importance for understanding conductivity, Joule heating rates, and instability growth rates. We present results from the development of an impedance probe at NASA GSFC and show its strengths relative to other measurement techniques. Complementary measurement techniques such as Langmuir Probes, while providing extremely high measurement cadence, suffer from uncertainties in calibration, surface contamination effects, and wake/sheath effects. Impedance Probes function by measuring the phase shift between the voltage on a long antenna and the current flowing from the antenna into the plasma as a function of frequency. At frequencies for which the phase shift is zero, a plasma resonance is assumed to exist. These resonances depend on a variety of plasma parameters, including the electron density, electron temperature, and magnetic field strength, as well as the antenna geometry, angle between the antenna and the magnetic field, and sheath / Debye length effects, but do not depend on the surface properties of the antenna. Previous impedance probe designs which "lock" onto the upper hybrid resonance are susceptible to losing lock in low-density environments. Information about other resonances, including the series resonance (which strongly depends on temperature) and other resonances which may occur near the upper hybrid, confounding its identification, are typically not transmitted. The novel features of the GSFC Impedance Probe (PISA) include: 1) A white noise generator that stimulates a wide range of frequencies simultaneously, allowing the instrument to send down the entire impedance frequency spectrum every few milliseconds. This allows identification of all resonance frequencies, including the series resonance which depends on temperature. 2) DC bias voltage stepping to bring the antenna as close as possible to the plasma potential, collapsing the ion sheath and minimizing sheath-induced errors in the measurement of the temperature-dependent series resonance frequency. In addition, by stepping the bias voltage through a range of values, we can measure the sheath capacitance as a function of voltage and get an independent measure of the Debye length. 3) Drive voltage amplitude stepping which allows the diagnosis of sheath rectification and non-linear effects that may drive harmonics of the plasma / upper hybrid frequency. By stepping the amplitude through a range, we can also find the optimal drive voltage which provides a reasonable SNR while minimizing the impedance probe's impact on other instruments, such as high frequency electric field probes. We present flight data from representative souding rocket flights of the Goddard Impedance Probe and discuss the instrument performance, error bars, and future improvements.
Burchill J.
Pfaff Robert F.
Rowland Douglas E.
Uribe Paula
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