Numerical model of the plasma sheath generated by the plasma source instrument aboard the Polar satellite

Abstract

The plasma sheath generated by the operation of the Plasma Source Instrument (PSI) aboard the Polar satellite is studied by using a three‐dimensional particle‐in‐cell (PIC) code. When the satellite passes through the region of low‐density plasma, the satellite charges to positive potentials as high as 40–50 V, owing to the photoelectron emission. In such a case, ambient core ions cannot accurately be measured or detected. The goal of the onboard PSI is to reduce the floating potential of the satellite to a sufficiently low value so that the ions in the polar wind become detectable. When the PSI is operated, ion‐rich xenon plasma is ejected from the satellite, such that the floating potential of the satellite is reduced and is maintained at ∼2 V. Accordingly, in our three‐dimensional PIC simulation we considered that the potential of the satellite is 2 V as a fixed bias. Considering the relatively high density of the xenon plasma in the sheath (∼10–103 cm−3), the ambient plasma of low density(<1 cm−3) is neglected. In the simulations the electric fields and plasma dynamics are calculated self‐consistently. We found that an “apple”‐shape positive potential sheath forms surrounding the satellite. In the region near the PSI emission a high positive potential hill develops. Near the Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment detector away from the PSI, the potentials are sufficiently low for the ambient polar wind ions to reach it. In the simulations it takes only about a couple of tens of electron gyroperiods for the sheath to reach a quasi steady state. This time is approximately the time taken by the heavy Xe+ ions to expand up to about one average Larmor radius of electrons from the satellite surface. After this time the expansion of the sheath in directions transverse to the ambient magnetic field slows down because the electrons are magnetized. Using the quasi steady sheath, we performed trajectory calculations to characterize the detector response to a highly supersonic polar wind flow. The detected ions' velocity distribution shows significant deviations from a shifted Maxwellian in the ambient polar wind population. The deviations are caused by the effects of electric fields on the ions' motion as they traverse the sheath.