In situ space plasma diagnostics with finite amplitude active electric experiments: Non‐linear plasma effects and instrumental performance of mutual impedance experiments

Luca Bucciantini (1) , P. Henri (1, 2) , G. Wattieaux (3) , F. Califano , Xavier Vallières (1) , O. Randriamboarison (1)

1 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
2 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE
3 LAPLACE-PRHE - Plasmas Réactifs Hors Equilibre

Mutual impedance experiments are a kind of plasma diagnostic techniques for the identification of the in situ plasma density and electron temperature. These plasma parameters are retrieved from mutual impedance spectra, obtained by perturbing the plasma using a set of electric emitting antennas and, simultaneously, retrieving using a set of electric receiving antennas the electric fluctuations generated in the plasma.Typical mutual impedance experiments suppose a linear plasma response to the electric excitation of the instrument. In the case of practical space applications, this assumption is often broken: low temperature plasmas, which are usually encountered in ionized planetary environments (e.g. RPC-MIP instrument onboard the Rosetta mission, RPWI/MIME experiment onboard the JUICE mission), force towards significant perturbations of the plasma dielectric.In this context, we investigate mutual impedance experiments relaxing, for the first time, the assumption of linear plasma perturbations: we quantify the impact of large antenna emission amplitudes on the (i) plasma density and (ii) electron temperature diagnostic performance of mutual impedance instruments.We use electrostatic 1D-1V full kinetic Vlasov-Poisson numerical simulations. First, we simulate the electric oscillations generated in the plasma by mutual impedance experiments. Second, we use typical mutual impedance data analysis techniques to compute the mutual impedance diagnostic performance in function of the emission amplitude and of the emitting-receiving antennas distance.We find the plasma density and electron temperature identification processes robust (i.e. relative errors below 5% and 20%, respectively) to large amplitude emissions for antenna emission amplitudes corresponding to electric-to-thermal energy ratios up to urn:x-wiley:21699380:media:jgra57540:jgra57540-math-0001.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Luca Bucciantini, P. Henri, G. Wattieaux, F. Califano, Xavier Vallières, et al.. In situ space plasma diagnostics with finite amplitude active electric experiments: Non‐linear plasma effects and instrumental performance of mutual impedance experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, 2022, 127 (12), pp.e2022JA030813. ⟨10.1029/2022JA030813⟩. ⟨insu-03882466⟩