The Solar Wind Ion Analyzer for MAVEN

Halekas, J. S.; Taylor, Ellen; Dalton, G.; Johnson, Greg; Curtis, D. W.; McFadden, J. P.; Mitchell, David; Lin, R. P.; Jakosky, B. M.

doi:10.1007/s11214-013-0029-z

Cited by 367 publications

(402 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The STATIC (lasp.colorado.edu/maven/static) and SWIA instruments [Halekas et al, 2013] will sample pickup ions with energies below~30 keV, which are mostly associated with the low-altitude and bound neutral oxygen corona. However, the escaping portion of the exospheric neutral oxygen is only dominant in the distant exosphere (above~10 R M ), and the energetic O + pickup ion spectrum measured by SEP is needed to constrain the models of photochemical oxygen escape.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pickup ion measurements by MAVEN: A diagnostic of photochemical oxygen escape from Mars

Rahmati

Cravens

Nagy

et al. 2014

Geophysical Research Letters

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A key process populating the oxygen exosphere at Mars is the dissociative recombination of ionospheric O 2 + , which produces fast oxygen atoms, some of which have speeds exceeding the escape speed and thus contribute to atmospheric loss. Theoretical studies of this escape process have been carried out and predictions made of the loss rate; however, directly measuring the escaping neutral oxygen is difficult but essential. This paper describes how energetic pickup ion measurements to be made near Mars by the SEP (Solar Energetic Particle) instrument on board the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft can be used to constrain models of photochemical oxygen escape. In certain solar wind conditions, neutral oxygen atoms in the distant Martian exosphere that are ionized and picked up by the solar wind can reach energies high enough to be detected near Mars by SEP.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pickup ion measurements by MAVEN: A diagnostic of photochemical oxygen escape from Mars

Rahmati

Cravens

Nagy

et al. 2014

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, including sounding rockets, Mars Global Surveyor ER (Mitchell et al 2001), Wind 3D-Plasma (Lin et al 1995), Lunar Prospector, FAST Plasma Experiment ), THEMIS (McFadden et al 2008, and MAVEN (Halekas et al 2013;McFadden et al 2015). The UCB group also participated in the development of the STEREO IMPACT SWEA instrument (Sauvaud et al 2007).…”

Section: Span Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Calibration is done at UCB using existing high-vacuum facilities. These calibration procedures have been developed and optimized by UCB scientists over decades (McFadden et al 2008), and result in extremely well calibrated and characterized instrumental response, as most recently demonstrated for MAVEN (Halekas et al 2013;McFadden et al 2015).…”

Section: Span Calibration Plansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation: Design of the Solar Wind and Coronal Plasma Instrument Suite for Solar Probe Plus

et al. 2015

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The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation on SolarProbe Plus is a four sensor instrument suite that provides complete measurements of the electrons and ionized helium and hydrogen that constitute the bulk of solar wind and coronal plasma. SWEAP consists of the Solar Probe Cup (SPC) and the Solar Probe Analyzers (SPAN). SPC is a Faraday Cup that looks directly at the Sun and measures ion and electron fluxes and flow angles as a function of energy. SPAN consists of an ion and electron electrostatic analyzer (ESA) on the ram side of SPP (SPAN-A) and an electron ESA on the anti-ram side (SPAN-B). The SPAN-A ion ESA has a time of flight section that enables it to sort particles by their mass/charge ratio, permitting differentiation of ion species. SPAN-A and -B are rotated relative to one another so their broad fields of view combine like the seams on a baseball to view the entire sky except for the region obscured by the heat shield and covered by SPC. Observations by SPC and SPAN produce the combined field of view and measurement capabilities required to fulfill the science objectives of SWEAP and Solar Probe Plus. SWEAP measurements, in concert with magnetic and electric fields, energetic particles, and white light contextual imaging will enable discovery and understanding of solar wind acceleration and formation, coronal and solar wind heating, and particle acceleration in the inner heliosphere of the solar system. SPC and SPAN are managed by the SWEAP Electronics Module (SWEM), which distributes power, formats onboard data products, and serves as a single electrical interface to the spacecraft. SWEAP data products include ion and electron velocity distribution functions with high energy and angular resolution. Full resolution data are stored within the SWEM, enabling high resolution observations of structures such as shocks, reconnection events, and other transient structures to be selected for download after the fact. This paper describes the implementation of the SWEAP Investigation, the driving requirements for the suite, expected performance of the instruments, and planned data products, as of mission preliminary design review.

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“…MAVEN carries several other instruments with overlapping plasma sensitivity. These include the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA, Halekas et al 2013), the Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA, and the Langmuir Probe and Wave experiment (LPW, Andersson et al 2015). STATIC data analysis will also utilize observations from the Magnetometer (Connerney et al 2015) for contextual, pickup ion and related wave analysis, and the Solar Energetic Particle experiment (SEP, Larson et al 2015) for determining background from penetrating radiation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These instruments include the SWIA (Halekas et al 2013), which will provide non-compositional information about the hot plasma, and NGIMS (Mahaffy et al 2015) which can provide neutral and ion highmass-resolution composition in the dense, collisional ionosphere. STATIC observations will also be cross-calibrated with plasma densities determined by SWEA and LPW (Andersson et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MAVEN SupraThermal and Thermal Ion Compostion (STATIC) Instrument

et al. 2015

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The MAVEN SupraThermal And Thermal Ion Compostion (STATIC) instrument is designed to measure the ion composition and distribution function of the cold Martian ionosphere, the heated suprathermal tail of this plasma in the upper ionosphere, and the pickup ions accelerated by solar wind electric fields. STATIC operates over an energy range of 0.1 eV up to 30 keV, with a base time resolution of 4 seconds. The instrument consists of a toroidal "top hat" electrostatic analyzer with a 360• × 90• field-of-view, combined with a time-of-flight (TOF) velocity analyzer with 22.5• resolution in the detection plane. The TOF combines a −15 kV acceleration voltage with ultra-thin carbon foils to resolve H + , He ++ , He + , O + , O + 2 , and CO + 2 ions. Secondary electrons from carbon foils are detected by microchannel plate detectors and binned into a variety of data products with varying energy, mass, angle, and time resolution. To prevent detector saturation when measuring cold ram ions at periapsis (∼ 10 11 eV/cm 2 s sr eV), while maintaining adequate sensitivity to resolve tenuous pickup ions at apoapsis (∼ 10 3 eV/cm 2 s sr eV), the sensor includes both mechanical and electrostatic attenuators that increase the dynamic range by a factor of 10 3 . This paper describes the instrument hardware, including several innovative improvements over previous TOF sensors, the ground calibrations of the sensor, the data products generated by the experiment, and some early measurements during cruise phase to Mars.

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The Solar Wind Ion Analyzer for MAVEN

Cited by 367 publications

References 27 publications

Pickup ion measurements by MAVEN: A diagnostic of photochemical oxygen escape from Mars

Pickup ion measurements by MAVEN: A diagnostic of photochemical oxygen escape from Mars

Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation: Design of the Solar Wind and Coronal Plasma Instrument Suite for Solar Probe Plus

MAVEN SupraThermal and Thermal Ion Compostion (STATIC) Instrument

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