The Li/Ba Release Experiments of the Lon Release Module

Abstract

Injections of Li and Ba plasmas in the solar wind and geomagnetic tail constitute the active element of the AMPTE mission. The scientific objectives are twofold: ion tracing and the study of the unteraction of two vastly different plasmas in space. The amounts of metal vapor injected in one of the seven release experiments via a reaction of the metal with CuO range from 0.2 kg of Li to 3 kg of Ba. Photoionization by the solar light converts the initially neutral gas into a plasma. The gas clouds created at the morning side of the magnetosphere and in the tail are well observable with low-light-level TV systems developed for such purposes. One of the cameras employed in a network distributed over the Western United States and Eastern Pacific is described in detail. The optical observations consitute only one source of information on the local effects of the seeded plasmas, the other being a set of particle and fi'eld instruments installed both on the IRM and UKS. First results on the expansion and vapor yield (ion injection rate) have been obtained from the in situ diagnostics of the two first releases in September 1984.