Instruments for Solar Wind and Cosmic Rays
There is much information on instrumentation on the WWW now. Below are some
examples of instruments that are discussed in class:
Low Energy Particle Instruments:
The CODIF/TEAMS/ESIC (acronyms for the different renditions of the instrument)
time-of-flight spectrometer is flying on FAST
has flown on Equator-S
and is being built for Cluster.
This is one of our main instruments in the group. Combining an electrostatic analyzer
and time-of-flight, the instrument determines the mass per charge (M/Q) and the
energy per charge of the incoming ions. The instrument uses post-acceleration
to extend to low energies. A paper describing
the instrument is on-line. We also have a movie that describes the basics
of the instrument. Go to the Movies
and pick the Time-of-Flight instrument.
The SULEICA
instrument on AMPTE/IRM was one of the first TOF instruments flown. It has discovered
the interstellar pickup ions. SULEICA employs also a solid state detector to measure
the total energy of ions independently. Therefore, SULEICA gets E, M, and Q separately.
The SWICS
instrument on ACE provides composition and charge state data of the solar wind.
SWICS uses post-acceleration to extend to low energies.
The
SWIMS instrument on ACE provides high-resolution elemental and isotopic composition
of the solar wind. It uses isochronous time-of-flight measurement (motion of the
ion like in a harmonic oscillator).
Magnetometer:
The MAG instrument
on ACE provides the magnetic field data in the solar wind to support the energetic
particle and solar wind measurements. It is also part of the Real-Time
Solar Wind Monitor that provides Space Weather information through NOAA on-line.
Energetic Particle Instruments:
The SEPICA
instrument on ACE determines the charge states of the solar energetic particles
and thus is like a "remote sensing thermometer" for the acceleration sites of
these particles. It employs electrostatic deflection, proportional counters
and solid state detectors. An animated movie that describes the workings of
SEPICA can be found on the Movie
page. Go to ACE on the bottom of the page.
The SIS instrument
on ACE provides high-resolution elemental and isotopic composition of solar energetic
particles at high (>5 MeV/Nucleon) energies.
The CRIS
instrument on ACE provides high-resolution elemental and isotopic composition
of galactic cosmic rays.
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