Wave-Telescope Analysis for Multipoint Observatories: Impact of Timing
and Spatial Uncertainties
Abstract
The wave telescope technique is used to reconstruct spatial power
distributions of space plasmas from multipoint spacecraft missions.
This study aims to quantify the impact of uncalibrated uncertainties in
the time synchronization and the spatial position on the accuracy of the
wave telescope method for observatories with more than four spacecraft,
e.g. HelioSwarm a nine-spacecraft NASA observatory currently in Phase
B.
We simulate synthetic data with systemic timing and spatial errors
modeled using geometries drawn from HelioSwarm’s Design Reference
Mission, applying the wave telescope technique to estimate wavevectors
for two characteristic ion-scale waves.
By carefully selecting optimal polyhedral configurations from the
overall geometry, and combining signals from multiple polyhedra, the
impact of systematic uncertainties and spatial aliasing can be
significantly reduced, leading to more accurate wavevector
identification for future multipoint missions.