October 28, 2010, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

October 28, 2010, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Examining the ion context of neutral upwelling events in the Earth's cusp

David Olson (University of Maryland)

Neutral upwelling was observed at high altitudes in the cusp regions of Earth's magnetic field early in the space program. The initial explanation for the phenomenon used Joule heating as a primary mechanism for driving neutral particles higher in the thermosphere. Recent observations, however, suggest this explanation is inadequate. To examine this type of event more closely, the sounding rocket project RENU (Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling) will carry a variety of instruments through the northern cusp during an upwelling event. The KeV Ion Magnetic Spectrograph (KIMS) is one instrument on this payload that will be observing energetic ions in conjunction with the upwelling event. KIMS makes use of cyclotron motion to observe energies from 100 eV to 10 keV simultaneously without the need for voltage sweeps or stepped observations. Ions are detected using a set of custom sized microchannel plates. In addition, a new amplifier design is used to count ion incidence events at a great reduction in cost from typical amplifiers flown with MCP-based instruments while keeping a high resolution