HR: 0800h
AN: SM51A-0356    [Abstracts]
TI: SERSIO Sounding Rocket Thermal Ion Data
AU: * Frederick-Frost, K M
EM: Kristen.Frederick-Frost@dartmouth.edu
AF: Dartmouth College, Physics and Astronomy 6127 Wilder Lab, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AU: Lynch, K A
EM: Kristina.Lynch@dartmouth.edu
AF: Dartmouth College, Physics and Astronomy 6127 Wilder Lab, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AU: Kintner, P
EM: pmk1@cornell.edu
AF: Cornell University, 301 Rhodes Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AU: Lessard, M
EM: mark.lessard@dartmouth.edu
AF: Dartmouth College, Physics and Astronomy 6127 Wilder Lab, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AU: Arnoldy, R
EM: roger.arnoldy@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Klatt, E
EM: ek59@cornell.edu
AF: Cornell University, 301 Rhodes Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AU: Widholm, M
EM: mark.widholm@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Ellis, A
EM: Armin.Ellis@dartmouth.edu
AF: Dartmouth College, Physics and Astronomy 6127 Wilder Lab, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AU: MacDonald, E
EM: Elizabeth.MacDonald@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Ivchenko, N
EM: nickolay.ivchenko@dartmouth.edu
AF: Royal Inst Technology, Alfven Lab Teknikringen 31 33, Stockholm, S-10044 Sweden
AU: Ogawa, Y
EM: yogawa@stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp
AF: STEL, Nagoya University, 2-15-16 Syowa, Ichinomiya Aichi, 491-0917
AB: While the auroral phenomena of ion up/outflows in the dayside cusp-cleft region are often recognized, the mechanism creating this drift is not. The SERSIO (Svalbard EISCAT Rocket Study of Ion Outflows) sounding rocket mission was designed to probe possible sources of this energy transfer, such as joule heating, wave-particle interactions, and ambipolar fields. SERSIO was launched January 22, 2004 at 8:57UT from Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway into an event simultaneously observed by the EISCAT radars. It reached an apogee of 790 km. Multiple ground cameras confirmed soft electron precipitation over the length of the trajectory while the radars showed increased ion velocity above 500km and enhanced electron temperature and density. The extensive suite of observations indicates the event was exceptional due to its intensity and 2.5 hr duration. Unfortunately, an attitude control system malfunction compromised much of the in situ data. Particle energy and temperature data were recoverable and compare well with the EISCAT profiles. Our instruments showed enhancements in the tail of the ion velocity distributions that were invisible to the radar. I will discuss the issues that arise when we measure the spacecraft potential with the thermal ion detectors and show that sphere-to-skin potentials are not a good measure of charging. Also of interest is the broader behavior of our thermal detectors including an investigation of a possible instrument energy cutoff and our future avenues of research.
DE: 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704)
DE: 2431 Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions (2736)
DE: 2455 Particle precipitation
DE: 2467 Plasma temperature and density
DE: 2494 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting