On the interaction effects of ionospheric plasma with dipole magnetic field of the spectrometer AMS-02 moving onboard of international space station

Experimental Design and Probe Diagnostics for Simulation of AMS02‐Magnet'effects in Ionospheric Plasma Flow Near International Space Station

“…These events are potentially dangerous for ISS environment, however now they can be registered by Russian "Obstanovka" [3] equipment at ISS. Our results [1] of 3D/PIC-simulations, relevant Hall-model and presented measurements reveal a plasma penetration up to Stoermer scale with the pronounced effects of plasma and field perturbations, if ion scale Λ i = C/ω pi is larger than a usual R mp one.…”

“…We have started laboratory simulation [1] of AMS-ISS problem at the KI-1 facility [1,4] of ILP with a large-scale high-vacuum chamber ∅1.2 m, supplied by dipole μ 10 5 G*cm 3 , flow of high-speed plasma (V 0 ∼ 50÷100 km/s and n ∼ 10 11 ÷10 13 cm −3 ) and systems of floating and heated [5] Langmuir Probes (LP) with a Tungsten and Platinum wire with the radius r p 50μm (∼ λ D , Debye length) for low density case n 10 12 cm −3 . The main diagnostic problem of plasma with high V 0 in the presence of magnetic field B (similar to our [5÷8] and other laser-produced plasma' studies) is a large level of electrostatic pickups onto probes and their circuits, immersed into the plasma with potential ϕ s up to mV 2 0 /2e ∼ kV at Λ i < R mp [5].…”

“…1) with the parameters [1], chosen on the base of main used similarity criteria [7,10] for the dipole-plasma problem (See Table 1). …”

“…To date, physics of plasma -dipole interaction for the indicated conditions is practically unknown. Further, laboratory experiments and PIC simulations are required to clarify it [1]. In particular it is primary of importance to identify where is a point of plasma stop and its potential drop as well as induced wave activities or turbulence.…”

“…In addition, outside of AMS's a lot of plasma phenomena within a range up to ∼ 10 m can originate [1] from the interaction of residual magnetic field around AMS (characterized by effective moment μ ∼ 10 7 G*cm 3 ) with the ionospheric plasma overflowing ISS (with velocity V 0 ≈ 8 km/s and density n ∼ 3*10 5 cm −3 of O + -ions). Therefore there is a possibility for the formation of Shabansky' Magnisphere [2] under conditions of sub-Alfvenic and super-sonic flow of very rarefied plasma, with the ion-inertial scale length C/ω pi ∼ 1 km >> other main scales of the problem -magnetopause stand-off R mp , Stoermer radius C st and even ISS size (L ∼ 100 m).…”