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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

Elfen: A CubeSat mission to measure heavy ions on both the dayside and nightside of Earth's magnetosphere

Résumé

The Elfen mission has two science goals: (1) To understand the heavy ion composition of the solar wind and its influence on the dayside of the Earth’s magnetosphere, (2) To understand the origin of and processing involving ions in the plasma sheet. We propose a mission using two instruments; a mass spectrometer to determine the in situ heavy ion composition, and a magnetometer to help determine the contemporaneous plasma regime of the Earth’s magnetosphere traversed by the spacecraft. The influence of solar wind heavy ions, such as C6+, or O7+ in the solar-terrestrial system is poorly understood, and no dedicated mission to understand these ions has been undertaken. It is unknown, for example, if charged iron atoms in the magnetosphere are of ionospheric or solar wind origin, and of their influence on the mesosphere. Recently analysis from Cluster has suggested that both the inflow and outflow contribute to ions in the magnetosphere. Ion spatial segregation, particularly in areas such as the magnetospheric cusps, has unknown influence on magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. In addition, temporal changes in solar wind composition will lead to changes in the total X-ray emission via charge exchange that can occur on impact of an ion with the neutral hydrogen exosphere. This has implications for current and future X-ray imaging missions, such as the joint ESA and Chinese Academy of Sciences SMILE mission, or for NASA’s LEXI mission. Heavy ion processes in the plasma sheet have only been sampled by an extremely limited number of previous missions. The origin of the plasma sheet is hotly debated. Diffusion may occur through the flanks of the magnetosheath, e.g. through the Kelvin Helmholtz instability, or ions may be injected via nightside reconnection in the tail. Alternatively, plasma may be injected sporadically under certain magnetospheric conditions. Elfen, in its current configuration as a ~16U CubeSat, from its 12 RE circular orbit, will make composition measurements at 10 second cadence on the nightside, and at a minimum of 1 minute on the dayside. The magnetometer will have sensitivity of 2 nT at a cadence of 10 Hz. The Elfen team comprises partners from the UK, US, France, and Norway. We will present a recent Concurrent Design Facility study that has significantly matured the initial science concept. See: https://elfen.le.ac.uk/
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Dates et versions

insu-04351850 , version 1 (18-12-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : insu-04351850 , version 1

Citer

Jennifer Alyson Carter, Piyal Samara-Ratna, Susan T Lepri, Jim M Raines, Aria Vitkova, et al.. Elfen: A CubeSat mission to measure heavy ions on both the dayside and nightside of Earth's magnetosphere. AGU Fall Meeting 2023, Dec 2023, San Francisco (Califonia), United States. ⟨insu-04351850⟩
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