On Expectations for the Measurement of Solar Wind Electrons by the SWA/EAS Sensors on Solar Orbiter.
Abstract
Solar Orbiter will take a complement of in situ and remote sensing instruments to both the near-Sun (< 0.3 AU) and high helio-latitude (> 30 degrees) environments. Measurements of the solar wind electrons of energies below 5 keV will be made on the mission by the Electron Analyser System (EAS), one of 3 sensor units which make up the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) suite of instruments. These sensors have been designed and constructed by the international SWA consortium. EAS is a dual-head, top-hat electrostatic analyser system that will be mounted on a boom extending into the shadow of the spacecraft and its heatshield. Through the deployment of an aperture deflection system, each head can sample a field of view of 90 x 360 degrees, and their orthogonal mounting provides full sky coverage, less regions blocked by the spacecraft and its appendages.
In this presentation, we briefly summarise the technical aspects of the sensor, together with the operational plans that will lead to key data products, including 3D electron velocity distribution functions, moments of the distribution and high time resolution 2D pitch angle distributions. We describe the caveats to the availability and accuracy of these measurements and the plans in place to mitigate them. We illustrate the expected data products and their variation across the Solar Orbiter orbits through reference to results of the study of solar wind electrons measured by the Helios and Cluster measurements. We describe how these measurements can be used by the community to contribute to answering some open science questions on the nature and origins of the solar wind between 0.3 and 1 AU. In particular, we place this in context of recent results on the variations of the core, halo and strahl electron populations in the solar wind.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMSH43B3707O
- Keywords:
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- 2169 Solar wind sources;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 7509 Corona;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMYDE: 7845 Particle acceleration;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICSDE: 7894 Instruments and techniques;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS