Rocket-borne experiments on resonance rectification

An experimental investigation into the behaviour of a spherical plasma resonance probe in a magnetic field

“…where f c has been assigned the value 1-52 MHz which is an average over the relevant portion of the flight path. The plasma frequency around the probe was probably not exactly the same as that measured by the aerial (Bain & Davies 1965), and there may, consequently, be some error in the value of 0-2 for the parameter /?. However, the above relation indicates that the frequency at the main peak in the rectified current to the spherical probe aboard the rocket varied in a manner similar to that in the laboratory.…”

“…A second peak having a frequency higher than the main peak and near to the local plasma frequency was observed for part of the time on one of the R.S.R.S. rocket flights (Bain & Davies 1965). One must consider whether the conditions in the laboratory and in the rocket experiment were similar and whether the mechanism of formation of the double peaks is the same in both cases.…”

“…is a constant and a is a constant ~ 1. In figure 7 the results of the flights SL132, 133 (Bain & Davies 1965) are presented in the form of a plot of/f as a function of/J, where f p is the value of the plasma frequency derived from the aerial admittance experiment aboard the same rocket (Bramley 1965). Although the points exhibit quite a large scatter, the results can be represented approximately by the relation…”

“…Rockets carrying payloads constructed at the Radio and Space Research Station have been flown in order to study the behaviour in the ionosphere of probes of various shapes (Bain & Davies 1965). On one of these flights, double resonance peaks in the rectified electron current collected on a spherical probe were observed.…”

The Impedance of a Resonance Probe†

“…From a study of the work of Bain and Davies (1965), Baker et al (1966), Buckley (1966), Gibson and Nicholls (1963), Harp and Crawford (1964), Smith and Bekefi (1964), and Waletzko (1965,1966), it is concluded that the normalized series resonant frequency is 0'5 to 0'7 irrespective of the probe geometry and plasma system, if the probe is at floating potential and there is no magnetic field present. Experimentally it was found that the series resonance corresponded to the best match between the external measuring system and the plasma.…”