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A new instrument for the study of wave-particle interactions in space: One-chip Wave-Particle Interaction Analyzer

Abstract

Wave-particle interactions in a collisionless plasma have been analyzed in several past space science missions but direct and quantitative measurement of the interactions has not been conducted. We here introduce the Wave-Particle Interaction Analyzer (WPIA) to observe wave-particle interactions directly by calculating the inner product between the electric field of plasma waves and of plasma particles. The WPIA has four fundamental functions: waveform calibration, coordinate transformation, time correction, and interaction calculation. We demonstrate the feasibility of One-chip WPIA (O-WPIA) using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) as a test model for future science missions. The O-WPIA is capable of real-time processing with low power consumption. We validate the performance of the O-WPIA including determination of errors in the calibration and power consumption.

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Correspondence to Hajime Fukuhara.

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Fukuhara, H., Kojima, H., Ueda, Y. et al. A new instrument for the study of wave-particle interactions in space: One-chip Wave-Particle Interaction Analyzer. Earth Planet Sp 61, 765–778 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353183

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353183

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