Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL 35899, U.S.A.
Abstract:
Collection of electrons by a long conducting cylinder in a flowing plasma is studied by means of numerical simulations. The plasma flow simulates the relative motion between a spacecraft and plasma. The sheath structures and the levels of electron current collections for the cases with and without an ambient magnetic field (
) are studied. It is found that for the flow perpendicular to the magnetic field, the current is considerably enhanced depending on the relative drift velocity. In the case of a non-zero magnetic field perpendicular to the cylinder axis, the potential structure is a two-dimensional double layer with dimensions LL|, where L and L| are the dimensions perpendicular and parallel to
, respectively. L is found to be the current limiting radius given by the Parker-Murphy model. For the flow along
, the electron current is found to be smaller than that for the flow perpendicular to
. This is explained in terms of the potential structures.