Heavy Metal and Rock in Space: Cluster RAPID Observations of Fe and Si

Haaland, Stein; Daly, P. W.; Vilenius, E.

doi:10.1029/2020ja028852

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 122 publications

(172 reference statements)

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“…Additionally, understanding the sources, energization mechanisms, and the overall dynamics of molecular ions in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system could possibly help understand the impact of the minor heavy ion species in the magnetosphere. Cluster (Haaland et al, 2021) and Geotail (Christon et al, 2017) missions have reported the observations of metal ions in the magnetosphere, but the sources and the transport mechanisms of these metal ions are still largely unknown. This review paper is intended to help inform and guide future ionosphere and magnetosphere studies, and provides context for the available observations of molecular ions.…”

Section: Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Observations of Molecular Ions in the Earth’s Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System

Lin

Ilie

2022

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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Ionospheric molecular ions, such as NO+, N2+ and O2+, are gravitationally bound, and are expected to undergo recombination to form a pair of neutral atoms, due to short dissociative recombination lifetime. Therefore, they are expected to be relatively cold in the Earth’s atmosphere, compared with light ions such as H+ and He+, or even heavier ions such as N+ or O+. However, several spacecraft missions observed their presence in the high-altitude ionosphere and the magnetosphere, predominantly during the geomagnetically active times. This hints to the possibility that molecular ions have the ability to acquire sufficient energy in a very short time, and can be used as tracers of mass differentiated vertical transport to understand the mechanisms responsible for “fast ionospheric outflow” and, In this letter, we review the observational data sets that reported on the abundances of molecular ions in the Earth’s magnetosphere-ionosphere system, starting from their first observations by the Sputnik III mission, to the current Arase (ERG) satellite and Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) missions. The available data suggests that molecular ions are quite abundant in the lower atmosphere at all times, but are only seen in the high-altitude ionosphere and magnetosphere during the times of increased geomagnetic activity.

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Section: Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Observations of Molecular Ions in the Earth’s Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System

Lin

Ilie

2022

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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“… Number of events showing Fe+ ions detected by Cluster from 2001 to 2019 (from Haaland et al., 2019). The F10.7 index is shown as a black line.…”

Section: Science Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cluster After 20 Years of Operations: Science Highlights and Technical Challenges

et al. 2021

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The Cluster mission was the first constellation using four identical spacecraft to study Sun‐Earth connection plasma processes. Using four spacecraft in a tetrahedron shape, it could measure, for the first time, 3D quantities such as electrical currents, plasma gradients or divergence of the electron pressure tensor and 3D structures such as boundaries, surface waves or vortices. Launched in pairs in July and August 2000, on two Soyuz rockets from Baikonur, the four spacecraft have been collecting data continuously for more than 20 years. The mission faced many challenges during the years of operations as some spacecraft subsystems had a lifetime of a few years beyond the initial two‐year mission. The major one was to operate without functioning batteries and to successfully pass short and long eclipses, up to 3 h long, without damaging the on‐board computers and transmitters and without freezing the fuel. More than 1,000 eclipses have been successfully passed since 2010 using a specially made procedure which switches off the complete spacecraft before entering into eclipse and switches it on when the Sun is again illuminating the solar panels. During 20 years, many discoveries and science results have been published in more than 2,700 scientific papers. A few highlights are presented here, focusing on how varying the spacecraft separation was essential to achieve the science goals of the mission. The Cluster Science Data System and the Cluster archive allows public access to all science data as well as spacecraft ancillary data.

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Heavy Metal and Rock in Space: Cluster RAPID Observations of Fe and Si

Cited by 2 publications

References 122 publications

A Review of Observations of Molecular Ions in the Earth’s Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System

A Review of Observations of Molecular Ions in the Earth’s Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System

Cluster After 20 Years of Operations: Science Highlights and Technical Challenges

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