Design and validation of impedance probe for platform-independent ionospheric plasma diagnostics

Abstract

The design of an impedance probe (IP), which is one of the instruments in the package called IAMMAP for the CAS500-3 satellite, and related plasma chamber experiments are introduced. The characteristics of the IP were estimated based on plasma and antenna theory. Trade-off studies on the possible geometry and on the circuit configuration were carried out. It was shown that the combination of a short wave monopole antenna and a capacitor bridge with a heterodyne configuration is suitable for ionospheric plasma diagnostics. The plasma chamber experiments reveal that the upper hybrid resonance frequency measured by the IP is compatible with the plasma model and with the Ne values estimated by the Langmuir probe (LP). This suggests that the compactly-designed IP and LP can serve as a good combination for in-situ measurement of the ionospheric plasma providing self-calibrated plasma parameters.