Properties of the Auroral Zone Ionosphere Inferred Using Plasma Contactor Data From the International Space Station

Details Properties of the Auroral Zone Ionosphere Inferred Using Plasma Contactor Data From the International Space Station Properties of the Auroral Zone Ionosphere Inferred Using Plasma Contactor Data From the International Space Station

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsa32a0663k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SA32A-0663

Physics

2407 Auroral Ionosphere (2704), 2415 Equatorial Ionosphere, 2443 Midlatitude Ionosphere, 2467 Plasma Temperature And Density, 2494 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

Comparison of the auroral electron precipitation maps produced by the NOAA POES satellite constellation with the flight path of the International Space Station (ISS) reveals that ISS regularly passes through the southern auroral oval south of Australia. During the first few months of 2001, ISS configuration and flight attitude were such that tensioning rods on the space station solar array masts could collect current from the ionosphere in the same way as a bare wire antenna or electrodynamic tether. The ISS has two plasma contactors that emit the electron currents needed to balance electron collection by surfaces such as the lattice of bare rods on the solar array masts. During this period, these electron currents exceeded 0.1 A at times. The largest currents were observed in the auroral oval south of Australia, often after orbital sunset. On the space station, the solar array 40 m long masts each have over 400 m of stainless steel tensioning rods. When subject to orbital vxBṡl induced potentials, the rods collect substantial currents from the ionosphere. Models of the mast collection processes based upon J. R. Sanmartin's bare wire collection theory have been incorporated into computer codes that integrate models of the station geometry, orbital motion, earth's magnetic field, and ionosphere to obtain plasma contactor emission currents. During the period being analyzed, the station flew in an orientation such that the masts were perpendicular to the orbital velocity vector, and parallel to the earth's surface. Maximum vxBṡl potentials are generated near the magnetic poles. The current drawn by the masts is linearly proportional to the plasma density. The plasma contactor emission current can be converted to an estimate of plasma density. These measurements show that the plasma density in the nighttime auroral ionosphere is frequently several times that predicted by the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI)-90 and IRI-2001 models. We will discuss how the observations order themselves with geomagnetic activity. We will compare the peak densities with auroral energy inputs inferred from electron precipitation monitors on the NOAA-15 and NOAA-16 spacecraft.

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