INVESTIGATION OF CURRENT VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF SPACECRAFT MOUNTED SPHERICAL ELECTROSTATIC ANALYZERS.
Abstract
The current-voltage characteristic of a spherical probe in a flowing, Maxwellian plasma with an assumed spherically symmetric potential distribution is derived and expanded in Taylor's series about plasma potential. The linear terms, which are independent of plasma sheath thickness, are applied to reduction of data from spherical electrostatic analyzers. A computer program, written in Fortran IV, uses multidimensional minimization techniques to perform least squares fitting of plasma ion mass, temperature, and density to the linear portion of current and log-current data from spherical analyzers flown in the ionosphere. Analysis of selected data yields reasonable values for plasma parameters and demonstrates the capabilities of this method of data reduction. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 07, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0680416
Entities
People
- John J. Shea
- Kenneth H. Carpenter