Abstract. The WAVES investigation on the WIND spacecraft will provide comprehensive measurements of the radio and plasma wave phenomena which occur in Geospace. Analyses of these measurements, in coordination with the other onboard plasma, energetic particles, and field measurements will help us understand the kinetic processes that are important in the solar wind and in key boundary regions of the Geospace. These processes are then to be interpreted in conjunction with results from the other ISTP spacecraft in order to discern the measurements and parameters for mass, momentum, and energy flow throughout geospace. This investigation will also contribute to observations of radio waves emitted in regions where the solar wind is accelerated. The WAVES investigation comprises several innovations in this kind of instrumentation: among which the first use, to our knowledge, of neural networks in real-time on board a scientific spacecraft to analyze data and command observation modes, and the first use of a wavelet transform-like analysis in real time to perform a spectral analysis of a broad band signal.
Chemical analyses returned by Mars Pathfinder indicate that some rocks may be high in silica, implying differentiated parent materials. Rounded pebbles and cobbles and a possible conglomerate suggest fluvial processes that imply liquid water in equilibrium with the atmosphere and thus a warmer and wetter past. The moment of inertia indicates a central metallic core of 1300 to 2000 kilometers in radius. Composite airborne dust particles appear magnetized by freeze-dried maghemite stain or cement that may have been leached from crustal materials by an active hydrologic cycle. Remote-sensing data at a scale of generally greater than ϳ1 kilometer and an Earth analog correctly predicted a rocky plain safe for landing and roving with a variety of rocks deposited by catastrophic floods that are relatively dust-free.Mars Pathfinder (named the Sagan Memorial Station) landed on the surface of Mars on 4 July 1997 (Figs. 1 and 2), deployed a small rover (named Sojourner) (Fig. 3), and collected data from three scientific instruments [named Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP), ␣-proton x-ray spectrometer (APXS), and atmospheric structure investigation/meteorology package (ASI/MET)] and technology experiments (1). In the first month of surface operations the mission returned about 1.2 gigabits of data, which include 9669 lander and 384 rover images and about 4 million temperature, pressure, and wind measurements. The rover traversed a total of about 52 m in 114 commanded movements, performed 10 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, carried out soil mechanics and technology experiments, and explored over 100 m 2 of the martian surface.Pathfinder used a rover, carrying a chemical analysis instrument, to characterize the rocks and soils in a landing area over hundreds of square meters on Mars, which provides a calibration point or "ground truth" for orbital remote-sensing observations (1, 2). The combination of spectral imaging of the landing area by the IMP, chemical analyses by the APXS aboard the rover, and close-up imaging of colors, textures, and morphologies with the rover cameras offers the potential for identifying rocks (petrology and mineralogy). Before the Pathfinder mission, knowledge of the kinds of rocks present on Mars was based mostly on the martian meteorites (all mafic igneous rocks) and inferences from Viking data (3, 4). In addition, small valley networks in heavily cratered terrain on Mars have been used to argue that the early martian environment may have been warmer and wetter (with a thicker atmosphere), at which time liquid water may have been stable (5).The Ares Vallis landing site (Fig. 4) was selected because it appeared acceptably safe and offered the prospect of analyzing a variety of rock types expected to be deposited by catastrophic floods, which enable addressing first-order scientific questions such as differentiation of the crust, the development of weathering products, and the nature of the early martian environment and its subsequent evolution (2). In the selection of the Pathfinder landing site...
Abstract. Mars Pathfinder successfully landed at Ares Vailis on July 4, 1997, deployed and navigated a small rover about 100 m clockwise around the lander, and collected data from three science instruments and ten technology experiments. The mission operated for three months and returned 2.3 Gbits of data, including over 16,500 lander and 550 rover images, 16 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, and 8.5 million individual temperature, pressure and wind measurements. Pathfinder is the best known location on Mars, having been clearly identified with respect to other features on the surface by correlating five prominent horizon features and two small craters in lander images with those in high-resolution orbiter images and in inertial space from two-way ranging and Doppler tracking. Tracking of the lander has fixed the spin pole of Mars, determined the precession rate since Viking 20 years ago, and indicates a polar moment of inertia, which constrains a central metallic core to be between 1300 and -2000 km in radius. Dark rocks appear to be high in silica and geochemically similar to anorogenic andesites; lighter rocks are richer in sulfur and lower in silica, consistent with being coated with various amounts of dust. Rover and lander images show rocks with a variety of morphologies, fabrics and textures, suggesting a variety of rock types are present. Rounded pebbles and cobbles on the surface as well as rounded bumps and pits on some rocks indicate these rocks may be conglomerates (although other explanations are also possible), which almost definitely require liquid water to form and a warmer and wetter past. Airborne dust is composed of composite silicate particles with a small fraction of a highly magnetic mineral, interpreted to be most likely maghemite; explanations suggest iron was dissolved from crustal materials during an active hydrologic cycle with maghemite freeze dried onto silicate dust grains. Remote sensing data at a scale of a kilometer or greater and an Earth analog correctly predicted a rocky plain safe for landing and roving with a variety of rocks deposited by catstrophic floods, which are relatively dust free. The surface appears to have changed little since it formed billions of years ago, with the exception that eolian activity may have deflated the surface by -3-7 cm, sculpted wind tails, collected sand into dunes, and eroded ventifacts (fluted and grooved rocks). Pathfinder found a dusty lower atmosphere, early morning water ice clouds, and morning near-surface air temperatures that changed abruptly with time and height. Small scale vortices, interpreted to be dust devils, were observed repeatedly in the afternoon by the meteorology instruments and have been imaged.
Abstract. The time domain sampler (TDS) experiment on WIND measures electric and magnetic wave forms with a sampling rate which reaches 120 000 points per second. We analyse here observations made in the solar wind near the Lagrange point v1. In the range of frequencies above the proton plasma frequency f pi and smaller than or of the order of the electron plasma frequency f pe , TDS observed three kinds of electrostatic (e.s.) waves: coherent wave packets of Langmuir waves with frequencies f 9 f pe , coherent wave packets with frequencies in the ion acoustic range f pi f`f pe , and more or less isolated non-sinusoidal spikes lasting less than 1 ms. We con®rm that the observed frequency of the low frequency (LF) ion acoustic wave packets is dominated by the Doppler eect: the wavelengths are short, 10 to 50 electron Debye lengths k h . The electric ®eld in the isolated electrostatic structures (IES) and in the LF wave packets is more or less aligned with the solar wind magnetic ®eld. Across the IES, which have a spatial width of the order of 925k h , there is a small but ®nite electric potential drop, implying an average electric ®eld generally directed away from the Sun. The IES wave forms, which have not been previously reported in the solar wind, are similar, although with a smaller amplitude, to the weak double layers observed in the auroral regions, and to the electrostatic solitary waves observed in other regions in the magnetosphere. We have also studied the solar wind conditions which favour the occurrence of the three kinds of waves: all these e.s. waves are observed more or less continuously in the whole solar wind (except in the densest regions where a parasite prevents the TDS observations). The type (wave packet or IES) of the observed LF waves is mainly determined by the proton temperature and by the direction of the magnetic ®eld, which themselves depend on the latitude of WIND with respect to the heliospheric current sheet.
Abstract.We consider the calibration of flux densities of radio bursts from decametric to kilometric wavelengths using ground-based and space-based data. The method we derive is applicable to low-frequency radio telescopes where galactic background radiation is the principal contribution to system temperature. It can be particularly useful for telescopes of low angular resolution observing spectra of radio bursts from the Sun and the planets because absolute calibration of these telescopes is very difficult with conventional techniques. Here we apply the method to observations from about 7 to 47 MHz that were made on the ground with the Bruny Island Radio Spectrometer located in Tasmania, Australia, and those from about 20 kHz to 13.8 MHz were made with the radio experiment WAVES on the WIND spacecraft. The spectrum of the galactic background radiation from < 1 to > 30 MHz has been carefully measured with low-resolution telescopes, starting more than a decade ago. We use this known spectrum to calibrate both BIRS and WAVES on an absolute scale. The accuracy we achieve is about a factor of two, whereas the flux densities of solar and planetary radio sources vary by many orders of magnitude. Our method permits inter-calibration of ground-based and space-based observations, and allows corrections to be made for instrumental uncertainties on both radio experiments. In addition, on the ground, it allows the spectra to be corrected for ionospheric absorption and partial ground reflections. As an application we show the spectrum of a solar type III burst observed from 47 MHz to 20 kHz. Its flux density was largest, S ≈ 10 −17 W m −2 Hz −1 , at about 3 MHz, while at 60 kHz and at 47 MHz it was lower by a factor of about 300.
The Unified Radio and Plasma Wave (URAP) experiment has produced new observations of the Jupiter environment, owing to the unique capabilities of the instrument and the traversal of high Jovian latitudes. Broad-band continuum radio emission from Jupiter and in situ plasma waves have proved valuable in delineating the magnetospheric boundaries. Simultaneous measurements of electric and magnetic wave fields have yielded new evidence of whistler-mode radiation within the magnetosphere. Observations of aurorallike hiss provided evidence of a Jovian cusp. The source direction and polarization capabilities of URAP have demonstrated that the outer region of the lo plasma torus supported at least five separate radio sources that reoccurred during successive rotations with a measurable corotation lag. Thermal noise measurements of the lo torus densities yielded values in the densest portion that are similar to models suggested on the basis of Voyager observations of 13 years ago. The URAP measurements also suggest complex beaming and polarization characteristics of Jovian radio components. In addition, a new class of kilometer-wavelength striated Jovian bursts has been observed.
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