科研之友
微信
新浪微博
Facebook
分享链接
摘要
Ions with energies from a few times the solar wind plasma thermal energy up to hundreds of keV/e are called suprathermal (ST) ions. ST ions are ubiquitous throughout the heliosphere and comprise material from many sources that vary in time and space. ST ions constitute a key source of material for solar energetic particles and other higher-energy interplanetary particle populations. Measuring the energy spectra and composition (ionic charge and elemental) of ST ions in the heliosphere has proved to be rather difficult. This is because their energy region lies between that sampled by solar wind instruments, which require long integration times to acquire adequate statistics at these energies, and that by the energetic particle instruments, which typically do not extend down into the lower part of the ST regime due to the low-energy thresholds (similar to 25-50 keV) of solid-state detectors. We present two novel concepts that, when combined, measure ST ions with high time, mass, and charge state resolution to address these challenges. Both use electrostatic analyzers that essentially serve as spectrographs. They simultaneously select ions over a broad range of energy-per-charge (E/q), thus requiring fewer voltage steps to cover the entire energy range. Their sensitivity is large compared to current instruments because each E/q is sampled for a longer period of time while the geometric factor is comparable. We describe the results obtained with laboratory prototypes. We also present a list of potential options for the detector section.
- 出版日期2016-12
