The Rotating Electric Field Ion Mass Spectrograph: Concept Development and Results from a Suborbital Flight in the Earth's Ionosphere

The Rotating Electric Field Ion Mass Spectrograph (REFIMS) is a technique for performing rapid mass spectrometry in space within a resource-conserving envelope. This presentation discusses the principles of the technique, development of its concept through analysis and simulation, design of an instrument based on the concept, laboratory calibration of the instrument, and results from its first flight in the ionosphere on 10 July 2011 aboard the Daytime Dynamo suborbital mission. The results show that the ionospheric plasma was dominated by molecular species up to apogee at about 160 km. The results are discussed further in terms of improving the technique, reducing its resource requirements, and broadening its scientific applicability.