Abstract
The Solar Wind Analyser (SWAN) is a miniaturised analyser to be delivered for NASA’s Sunjammer solar sail mission. The aim of the Sunjammer mission is to demonstrate the technology readiness of solar sails and the ability to carry out good measurements of the solar wind with in situ instrumentation. Such measurements are extremely valuable, particularly when available in real-time, for advanced space-weather warning systems, alerting satellite operators and utilities on Earth of potential hazards from geomagnetic storms caused by coronal mass ejections from the sun. SWAN combines an electrostatic analyser with an energetic particle detection system to provide a comprehensive measurement of the low to medium energy solar wind plasma. The electrostatic analyser, based on the Charged Particle Spectrometer (ChaPS) built for the TechDemoSat mission, is designed to measure energy distribution functions of proton and alpha particles and provide real-time data for future space weather operational missions. The energetic particle detection system on the other hand will extend the energy range to enable measurement of solar energetic particles. This paper will present instrument requirements for a solar wind space weather monitor, present technical details of ChaPS and SWAN and discuss the challenges of making plasma measurements in the presence of a large solar sail.
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The development of SWAN is carried with financial support from the UKSA.
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Kataria, D.O., Hailey, M., Hu, H. (2014). Solar Wind Analyser (SWAN) for the Sunjammer Solar Sail Mission. In: Macdonald, M. (eds) Advances in Solar Sailing. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34907-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34907-2_14
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