Abstract A spacecraft, that travels at mesothermal speeds, disturbs the plasma in its surroundings. Due to the fade out of the ions an extended negative potential structure is formed behind the probe. A numerical model based on the Vlasov-Poisson system to describe the wake structure of a spacecraft under ionospheric conditions is presented. The dependence of the wake structure on the streaming velocity of the plasma and on the ratio of electron to ion temperature is discussed.
A numerical model to calculate the wake structure of a spacecraft under ionospheric conditions
Advances in Space Research ; 1 , 2 ; 409-412
1981-01-01
4 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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