POP Nameplate
  • Volume/Page
  • Keyword
  • DOI
  • Citation
  • Advanced
   
 
 
 

Flickr Twitter UniPHY Group iResearch App Facebook

Physics of Plasmas / Volume 13 / Issue 6 / ARTICLES / Ionospheric, Solar-System, and Astrophysical Plasmas

Phys. Plasmas 13, 062904 (2006); doi:10.1063/1.2199207 (10 pages)

Wake formation behind positively charged spacecraft in flowing tenuous plasmas

E. Engwall1, A. I. Eriksson2, and J. Forest3

1Department of Astronomy and Space Physics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden and Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden
2Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden
3Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden and Artenum Company, Paris, France

View MapView Map

(Received 9 February 2006; accepted 3 April 2006; published online 14 June 2006)

Spacecraft in tenuous plasmas become positively charged because of photoelectron emission. If the plasma is supersonically drifting with respect to the spacecraft, a wake forms behind it. When the kinetic energy of the positive ions in the plasma is not sufficient to overcome the electrostatic barrier of the spacecraft potential, they scatter on the potential structure from the spacecraft rather than get absorbed or scattered by the spacecraft body. For tenuous plasmas with Debye lengths much exceeding the spacecraft size, the potential structure extends far from the spacecraft, and consequently in this case the wake is of transverse dimensions much larger than the spacecraft. This enhanced wake formation process is demonstrated by theoretical analysis and computer simulations. Comparison to observations from the Cluster satellites shows good agreement.

© 2006 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. ENHANCED WAKE FORMATION
  3. SIMULATIONS OF THE ENHANCED WAKE FORMATION
    1. Code and modeling
    2. Spacecraft body simulations
    3. Boom simulations
    4. Accuracy of the simulations
      1. Mass ratio
      2. Dirichlet conditions
      3. Wire booms
  4. COMPARISON TO DATA FROM THE CLUSTER SPACECRAFT
    1. Cluster data
    2. Comparison to spacecraft body simulations
    3. Comparison to boom simulations
  5. CONCLUSIONS

RELATED DATABASES

To view database links for this article, you need to log in.

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

wakes, astrophysical plasma, space vehicles, plasma flow, photoemission, plasma transport processes, plasma simulation

PACS

  • 95.30.Qd

    Magnetohydrodynamics and plasmas

  • 95.55.Pe

    Lunar, planetary, and deep-space probes

  • 52.30.-q

    Plasma dynamics and flow

  • 52.25.Fi

    Transport properties

  • 52.65.Rr

    Particle-in-cell method

  • 52.25.Os

    Emission, absorption, and scattering of electromagnetic radiation

ARTICLE DATA

Permalink
http://link.aip.org/link/doi/10.1063/1.2199207

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:

1070-664X (print)  
1089-7674 (online)

Publisher:

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to citing articles, you need to log in.


Figures (7) Tables (2)

Access to article objects (figures, tables, multimedia) requires a subscription; log in to view available files.
(Access to supplementary files, where available, is free for this journal.)

Access to article objects (figures, tables, multimedia) requires a subscription; log in to view available files.
(Access to supplementary files, where available, is free for this journal.)



Close

Google Calendar

ADVERTISEMENT

Your Recent History Recent History Help

Recently Viewed

  1. Wake formation behind positively charged spacecraft in flowing tenuous plasmas
Go to AIP Home
Copyright © American Institute of Physics
close