New plasma instruments for investigations of plasma distributions with high temporal and phase space coverage

Evolution of corpuscular diagnostics of space plasmas led to development of very sophisticated plasma spectrometers. There are very specialized spectrometers providing unique identification of mass, energy and charge. Top-hat analyzer became the working horse of contemporary plasma diagnostics on most of spin-stabilized spacecraft. Miniaturized plasma analyzers are developed for new low-cost missions. Still there is a need for instruments with higher temporal resolution and better phase space coverage. Representative examples of high-end plasma analyzers are presented and the trends in corpuscular diagnostics of space plasma are discussed. The new type of plasma analyzer CAMERA is described that allows fast measurements on stabilized or rotating spacecraft. It provides instantaneous 2π field of view without gaps, flexible control of the energy bandwidth and angular resolution, high temporal resolution, and high UV rejection. CAMERA can be used as a feeding optics for additional analyzers including mass-spectrometers.