Rocket-Borne Probes for Charged Ionospheric Aerosol Particles

Abstract

Two types of rocket-borne probes are described for detecting charged aerosol particles in the ionosphere. The first are flat charge-collecting surfaces on the skin of the rockets that have returned data in four experimental campaigns. The collection surfaces have permanent magnets behind them that shield the probes from electrons. Some of the probes also have an electrical bias to repel light, positive ions. The current that is recorded is thus from heavier charged aerosol particles. This heavy charge carrier current is converted to a charge number density. The second type of probe, under development, is an electrostatic mass analyzer in which different ranges of mass are collected within the payload on surfaces with different bias potentials.

In-situ measurement of smoke particles in the wintertime polar mesosphere between 80 and 85km altitude

“…The Colorado dust detectors (CDDs) are the third design that has been used on several rocket campaigns (Horanyi et al, 2000;Robertson et al, 2004;Smiley et al, 2003Smiley et al, , 2006. The CDD instrument is a graphite-collecting patch connected to a sensitive electrometer.…”

Charge and size distribution of mesospheric aerosol particles measured inside NLC and PMSE during MIDAS MaCWAVE 2002

“…The probe electronics biased the collection surface to +3 V relative to the rocket body, an improvement was added after MIDAS SOLSTICE 2001 to compensate for the negative payload potential. During MIDAS SOL-STICE 2001, the payload potential attracted positive ions into the probe and complicated the data interpretation (Robertson et al, 2004). The bias voltage makes the charge collecting surface equal to or more positive than the local plasma potential, repelling positive ions.…”

On the efficiency of rocket-borne particle detection in the mesosphere

“…In addition to the Faraday detectors considered here, other techniques have been applied to study meteoric smoke. Heavy charged constituents have been measured from sounding rockets by Schulte and Arnold (1992) using a mass spectrometer, by Croskey et al (2001) using a Gerdien condenser, and by Robertson et al (2004) and Smiley et al (2006) using magnetically shielded probes. Signatures of charged particles have recently also been reported from incoherent scatter radar data (Rapp et al, 2007).…”