Measurements of Heavy Ions in the Low-Altitude Regions of the Outer Zone.

Abstract

The data were acquired with a heavy-ion sensor aboard the S3-2 satellite in the time period between 24 December 1975 and 3 March 1976. At L = 3.25, 0.35 = or < B = 0.25, E > 250 KeV/nucleon, mirroring fluxes of 370/Sq cm- sec-sr He ions and 0.25/Sq cm-sec-sr CNO ions were observed. Thus the CNO/He ratio was approx.= 6,800,000. Equatorial measurements (Spjeldvik and Fritz, 1978c; Hovestadt et al., 1978) gave a much larger He/CNO ratio; clearly magnetospheric processes strongly discriminate against populating the low-altitude regions with ions of increasing mass in the energy range of hundreds of KeV. In addition, a comparison of the S3-2 data with that from INJUN 5 acquired in January 1969 in the same region of the magnetosphere indicated that the low altitude CNO/He ratio is strongly time dependent.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 15, 1981
Accession Number
ADA099453

Entities

People

  • D. Hovestadt
  • J. B. Blake
  • Joseph F. Fennell

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alpha Particles
  • Altitude
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Cosmic Rays
  • Detectors
  • Instrumentation
  • Low Altitude
  • Magnetosphere
  • Materials
  • Materials Science
  • Physics
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Radiation
  • Scattering
  • Space Sciences
  • Space Systems
  • Spectra

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster