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| INSTITUTET FÖR RYMDFYSIK | UPPSALA |
 |
|
| Swedish Institute of Space Physics | (59°50.272′N, 17°38.786′E) |
Project work /
Examensarbete (30 hp)
Modelling of
Cassini Langmuir probe measurements
Student: Thomas Nilsson,
Uppsala UniversitySupervisor: Anders Eriksson
Period: Spring 2009
Background
NASA's Cassini mission is now in orbit around Saturn. Among the instruments onboard, the Langmuir probe instrument LP, built and operated by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) in Uppsala as a part of the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument from the University of Iowa, is very useful for investigations of cold and thermal plasmas in all of Saturn's magnetosphere and in Titan's ionosphere. However, interpreting the data in terms of plasma properties (density and temperature) requires an understanding of the spacecraft-plasma interaction and its impact on the LAP measurements. This understanding is up to now semi-empirical: quantitative modelling involving numerical simulation is needed for deeper understanding of errors and uncertainties.Project
In the project, the Cassini LP measurements were modelled for varying plasma conditions by use of the SPIS code package for s/c-plasma interaction studies. The project included:- Gathering background information on Cassini and the
SPIS code
- Setting up and running SPIS
- Creating a model of Cassini and LP in SPIS
- Running simulations and analyzing the results
- Report writing and seminar presentation
Results
- Final report: PDF
- Archive of SPIS models used: gzipped tar archive (.tgz)
- Presentation at the XVIIth SPINE meeting: PDF
![[Cassini]](cassini-sim.png)
Figure: The electrostatic potential around Cassini for an electron density of 1 per cc, resulting from a particle-in-cell simulation using SPIS.