Accession Number:

AD0680416

Title:

INVESTIGATION OF CURRENT VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF SPACECRAFT MOUNTED SPHERICAL ELECTROSTATIC ANALYZERS.

Descriptive Note:

Final scientific rept. 7 Aug 67-7 Aug 68,

Corporate Author:

COSMIC INC GAITHERSBURG MD

Personal Author(s):

• Shea,John J.
• Carpenter,Kenneth H.

Report Date:

1968-09-07

Pagination or Media Count:

114.0

Abstract:

The current-voltage characteristic of a spherical probe in a flowing, Maxwellian plasma with an assumed spherically symmetric potential distribution is derived and expanded in Taylors series about plasma potential. The linear terms, which are independent of plasma sheath thickness, are applied to reduction of data from spherical electrostatic analyzers. A computer program, written in Fortran IV, uses multidimensional minimization techniques to perform least squares fitting of plasma ion mass, temperature, and density to the linear portion of current and log-current data from spherical analyzers flown in the ionosphere. Analysis of selected data yields reasonable values for plasma parameters and demonstrates the capabilities of this method of data reduction. Author

Descriptors:

• *IONOSPHERE
• PROBES
• DATA PROCESSING
• ELECTROSTATICS
• SPHERES
• LEAST SQUARES METHOD
• OPTIMIZATION
• PLASMAS(PHYSICS)
• POTENTIAL THEORY
• COMPUTER PROGRAMS
• ELECTRIC CURRENT

Subject Categories:

• Atmospheric Physics
• Computer Programming and Software

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE