Kinetic Simulation of Segmented Plasma Flow Meter Response in the Ionospheric Plasma

A relatively simple design of a segmented flow meter is presented for measuring in situ plasma flow velocities and other space plasma parameters. The response of the flow meter to space environment is simulated for plasma conditions representative of the ionosphere at mid and low latitudes using a Particle in cell code. A synthetic data set consisting of ion currents collected by several segments of the flow meter, and the physical parameters for which they were calculated, is then used to construct a solution library from which inference models can be constructed, using radial basis function and neural network regressions. Simulation results show that with such a flow meter, it should be possible to infer plasma flow velocities in the direction perpendicular to the ram direction, with uncertainties of ±45 m/s or less. Models can also be constructed to infer plasma densities, with a maximum relative error of 23%. This work is presented as a first assessment and proof of concept for an original design of a simple and robust flow meter.