Plasma diagnostic experiments on board of the Brazilian scientific microsatellite SACI-1

Abstract

A set of three plasma diagnostic experiments, known as PLASMEX, are planned to investigate ionospheric plasma bubbles in the ionospheric region. We propose to measure the density, temperature and spectral distribution of irregularities of plasma using (1) a High Frequency Capacitance Probe for measuring the plasma density, (2) a fixed-bias Langmuir Probe for measuring the electron density profile and the spectral distribution of plasma irregularities, and (3) an Electron Temperature Probe for measuring the kinetic temperature of the ionospheric electrons. Details of the experiment and acquisition and processing systems are presented.