HR: 1340h
AN: SM33B-0446    [Abstracts]
TI: A Laboratory Investigation of an Ion Composition Magnetospheric Plasma Spectrometer
AU: * MacDonald, E
EM: macdonald@lanl.gov
AF: Space Science and Applications, ISR-1, Los Alamos National Laboratory P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Dors, E
EM: edors@lanl.gov
AF: Space Science and Applications, ISR-1, Los Alamos National Laboratory P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Funsten, H
EM: hfunsten@lanl.gov
AF: Space Science and Applications, ISR-1, Los Alamos National Laboratory P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Harper, R
EM: rharper@lanl.gov
AF: Space Science and Applications, ISR-1, Los Alamos National Laboratory P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Deming, J
EM: jdeming@lanl.gov
AF: Space Instrumentation and Systems Engineering, Los Alamos National Laboratory P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Ritzau, S
EM: ritzaus@burle-eo.com
AF: Burle Electro-Optics, PO Box 1159, Sturbridge, MA 01566 United States
AB: Understanding the dynamics and mass transport of particles in the magnetosphere and its coupling to the ionosphere and solar wind requires low energy plasma measurements of electrons and multiple ion species. Direct ion composition measurements at geosynchronous orbit are not currently available to the geophysical community. The Advanced Miniaturized Plasma Spectrometer (AMPS), which is scheduled to launch into geosynchronous orbit in early 2006, was designed to measure energy-resolved flux distributions of electrons, H+, O+, and He+2 using minimal resources. The spectrometer utilizes three nested hemispheres to provide simultaneous E/q measurements of incoming ions and electrons from 2 eV/q - 40 keV/q. Ion composition is derived using E/q x E measurements that leverage different energy loss processes in the detector by H+ and O+ to uniquely identify these species. We present laboratory measurements of the spectrometer performance and discuss the potential scientific impact for understanding plasma dynamics and transport at geosynchronous orbit.
DE: 7894 Instruments and techniques
DE: 7914 Engineering for hazard mitigation
DE: 7954 Magnetic storms (2788)
DE: 7984 Space radiation environment
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005