Bonn 2010 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 3: Poster

EP 3.25: Poster

Monday, March 15, 2010, 17:45–19:00, AKM Foyer

Suprathermal ions with STEREO/PLASTIC — Jan-Dirk Kohlmann¹, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber¹, Christian Drews¹, Lars Berger¹, and •Antoinette B. Galvin² — ¹Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics, Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel, Germany — ²Space Science Center & Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, New Hampshire

The PLAsma and SupraThermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) instrument is part of the NASA Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) Mission. It consists of two almost identical spacecrafts, STEREO-A (Ahead of the Earth) and STEREO-B (Behind the Earth). PLASTIC is a linear time-of-flight mass spectrometer. It is capable of measuring particles in an energyrange from 0.3 to 80 keV/e. The instrument is divided into two main apertures. The Solar wind sector (SWS) is pointing directly to the sun, it has field of view of 45^∘ and a resolution of 1.4^∘ in the ecliptic and ± 22.5^∘ with a resolution of 1.4^∘ in polar direction. The suprathermal ion Wide-Angel Partition sector (WAP) covers a range of 218^∘ in the ecliptic and 10^∘ in polar direction. The broad azimuthal and polar angle coverage together with the large geometry factor of the instrument allows for studies of suprathermal particles e.g. Pick-Up Ions (PUIs) in unprecedent quality. We have developed a model of PLASTIC that calculates the expected count-rates depending on the angle of incidence for any input velocity distribution. Comparing the results from this virtual detector with observations the 3D velocity distribution of ions can be reconstructed. Here we present first results for He¹⁺.