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Numerical simulations of a sounding rocket in ionospheric plasma: Effects of magnetic field on the wake formation and rocket potential
Author(s) -
Darian D.,
Marholm S.,
Paulsson J. J. P.,
Miyake Y.,
Usui H.,
Mortensen M.,
Miloch W. J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2017ja024284
Subject(s) - sounding rocket , rocket (weapon) , physics , wake , ionosphere , plasma , magnetic field , computational physics , ionospheric sounding , supersonic speed , electron , aerospace engineering , debye sheath , debye length , geophysics , atomic physics , mechanics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , engineering
The charging of a sounding rocket in subsonic and supersonic plasma flows with external magnetic field is studied with numerical particle‐in‐cell (PIC) simulations. A weakly magnetized plasma regime is considered that corresponds to the ionospheric F 2 layer, with electrons being strongly magnetized, while the magnetization of ions is weak. It is demonstrated that the magnetic field orientation influences the floating potential of the rocket and that with increasing angle between the rocket axis and the magnetic field direction the rocket potential becomes less negative. External magnetic field gives rise to asymmetric wake downstream of the rocket. The simulated wake in the potential and density may extend as far as 30 electron Debye lengths; thus, it is important to account for these plasma perturbations when analyzing in situ measurements. A qualitative agreement between simulation results and the actual measurements with a sounding rocket is also shown.