Measurement Principle
The Active Measurement of Mercury’s Plasma experiment, AM2P, offers active self and mutual electric impedance measurement capabilities of electric field antenna [Sec.7 of Kasaba et al. (2020a)]. It is applicable to the spherical probes and/or the outer shield of the wire booms of MEFISTO-S. AM2P covers the frequency range of 0.128–143 kHz, including the expected electron plasma frequencies in the solar wind and the Hermean magnetosphere. From the output signal, the in-situ electron density and temperature will be retrieved. For instance, the electron density can be determined from the frequency at which the mutual impedance spectrum exhibits a typical resonance close to the plasma frequency (Chasseriaux et al. 1972; Henri et al. 2017). This operational-frequency range allows electron densities to be measured up to ∼180 cm−3 in plasmas with Debye lengths up to about 15 m. AM2P also provides calibration signals to DB-SC, LF-SC, MEFISTO, and WPT.
Members
- Lead Co-Investigator
- Pierre Henri (LPC2E & Lagrange, France)