The APEX north star experiment: observations of high-speed plasma jets injected perpendicular to the magnetic field

Abstract

Initial results from the Active Plasma EXperiment North Star experiment are presented. The North Star active experiment included two separate plasma jet injections, both perpendicular to the Earth's magnetic field. The objective of the experiment is to investigate the interaction of high-speed (7–40 km/s) plasma jets with the ionospheric plasma and the coupling to the magnetosphere and lower ionosphere. The plasma jets were produced using an Explosive Type Generator device. This device is a shaped-charge device that vaporizes porous aluminum inside the generator and forces the vaporized products out of a nozzle, resulting in the production of a high-speed, partially ionized aluminum plasma jet. Instrumentation on three different payloads was used to obtain multi-point observations of the plasma jet properties, optical radiation from the jets, and ionospheric perturbations. Imagery, high-speed photometry, and spectrographic imagery using ground- and space-based sensors were used to monitor the dynamics and spectral content of the plasma jet. This paper describes the experiment and summarizes the initial results from the North Star experiment.