Simulation study of wake formation in the magnetized system

Chun-Sung Jao^1*, Sigvald Marholm², Andres Spicher³, Wojciech J. Miloch⁴

¹Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
²Department of Computational Materials Processing, Institute for Energy Technology, Kjeller, Norway
³Department of Physics and Technology, the Arctic University of Norway, Tromso, Norway
⁴Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

* Presenter:Chun-Sung Jao, email:csjao@jupiter.ss.ncu.edu.tw

Space physics research has widely utilized instrument-carrying rockets and satellites to conduct experiments along the spacecraft's trajectory to understand the geospace environments. However, a traveling spacecraft can disturb the local plasma environment and potentially cause plasma measurement errors. Consideration of the effects of charging and wake formation issues thus becomes essential for the instrument design and the data processing to improve data quality. Under this context, we will employ a three-dimensional unstructured Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code, PTetra, to understand the characteristics of the plasma wake formed behind different components (boom, supporter, and probe). We will focus on the magnetized system for the application in the sounding rockets or low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite missions. In particular, in the ionospheric plasma, the gyroradius of local electrons may approach the size of the satellite/rocket, boom, or probe.

Keywords: Space plasma, Plasma-object interaction, Wake formation, Particle-in-Cell simulation