loading page

Kinematic Analysis of the Solar Wind Using Rotating Electric Fields
  • Masanao Hotta
Masanao Hotta
Office TANDEM L.L.C., Office TANDEM L.L.C.

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile

Abstract

This paper describes a method for analyzing the kinematic properties of ions composing the solar wind. The core technology is a velocity analysis performed by dual rotating electric field (REF) units arranged coaxially in tandem, where the electric field in the downstream unit is set in the opposite direction to the upstream one. When the solar wind flies freely through the REF units, ions diverge outwards in the upstream unit and converge inwards in the downstream unit. Since the degree of diversion and conversion correspond to each ion’s velocity, ions separate into multiple groups flying through the REF units, terminate their flights on an image sensor placed on the tail end, and create sorted patterns that exhibit the velocity distribution of ions. As the REF units act on ions only by dynamic lateral electric force, the initial velocity and charge state of the ions remain invariant during the analysis process, which can be advantageous for solar wind analysis. This paper introduces a proposed instrument equipped with multiple functions, including an energy analysis, an overall velocity analysis, and a detailed ion velocity analysis. The kinematic properties of the measured ions correspond to energy levels ranging from 300 eV to 20 keV, velocities from 20 km/s to 1,900 km/s, and mass numbers from 1 to 200.