Peterson, William K. | Search NASA

NASA NTRS1993

Automatic detection of mass-resolved ion conics

A processing algorithm to automatically detect a specific type of ion distribution (called the ion conic distribution) in data obtained from a space-based mass spectrometer has been devised. Automation of this task is necessary due to the sparseness of conic events within the very large databases typical of space plasma instruments. This paper reports on the algorithm used to perform this automated analysis, along with a description of the methods used to verify the algorithm and a summary of initial results on the characterization of the near-earth space plasma.

Doherty, Mark F.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Effects of convection electric field on upwelling and escape of ionospheric O(+)

A Monte Carlo code is used to explore the full effects of the convection electric field on distributions of upflowing O(+) ions from the cusp/cleft ionosphere. Trajectories of individual ions/neutrals are computed as they undergo multiple charge-exchange collisions. In the ion state, the trajectories are computed in realistic models of the magnetic field and the convection, corotation, and ambipolar electric fields. The effects of ion-ion collisions are included, and the trajectories are computed with and without simultaneous stochastic heating perpendicular to the magnetic field by a realistic model of broadband, low frequency waves. In the neutral state, ballistic trajectories in the gravitational field are computed. The initial conditions of the ions, in addition to ambipolar electric field and the number densities and temperatures of O(+), H(+), and electrons as a function of height in the cusp/cleft region were obtained from the results of Gombosi and Killeen (1987), who used a hydrodynamic code to simulate the time-dependent frictional-heating effects in a magnetic tube during its motion though the convection throat. The distribution of the ion fluxes as a function of height are constructed from the case histories.

Cladis, J. B.↗