Derivation of Incident Angle and Sweeping Voltage Design on Advanced Ionospheric Probe onboard FORMOSAT-5

Abstract:

Advanced Ionospheric Probe (AIP) developed by the National Central University (NCU), Taiwan, has been selected to install on FORMOSAT-5 satellite. It is an all-in-one plasma sensor with the sampling rate up to 8,192 Hz to measure ionospheric plasma concentrations, velocities, and temperatures over a wide range of spatial scales. The design of AIP sensor allows it to sequentially perform as a Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA), an Ion Drift Meter (IDM), an Ion Trap (IT), or a Planer Langmuir Probe (PLP). Unlike the inherited payload IPEI onboard FORMOSAT-1/ROCSAT-1, the entrance opening of IDM of AIP is circular instead of square shape, causes the difference in the geometry calculation of the projection area. New method is present to obtain the incident angle from the incoming plasma beam. Meanwhile, a set of sweeping voltage pattern is defined to get a better result of plasma parameters from RPA function. Upon the requirement of the mission, several sweeping voltage patterns are designed to fit the specified species of plasma to increase the accuracy in the derivation of ram speed and temperature. A simulation is present to show the fitting result in different assumptions and conditions for each sweeping pattern.