电离层等离子体主动释放试验研究

等离子体主动释放试验是空间物理研究的一种主动、有效手段. 2013年4月中国科学院空间科学与应用研究中心在海南进行了中国第一次空间等离子体主动释放试验. 探空火箭在190 km高度释放了近1 kg碱金属钡, 形成一团由钡原子和钡离子组成的云团. 利用地面光学观测手段, 记录了钡云从释放初期到末期的演化全过程, 获取了钡云亮度、粒子密度、成分及扩散范围随时间的变化规律. 通过对钡云漂移的研究, 得到低纬度地区释放点处电离层的中性风场特性, 其分析结果对于研究低纬度地区电离层动力学特性具有一定指导意义. 

Research on Active Plasma Release Experiment in Ionosphere

Barium release is one kind of active experiments for space physics research, which can be used to study the near-earth space environment efficiently. In April 2013, the first barium release experiment of China was successfully implemented by Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Hainan Province. Nearly 1 kg barium was released by a sounding rocket at 190 km height in this experiment, which produced a spherical cloud including barium atoms and ions. The evolution process of barium cloud was recorded by ground-based optical observatory, obtaining the whole process of barium cloud brightness, particle density, composition and diffusion range variation with time. Through analysis of barium cloud drift, the neutral wind field characteristics of low-latitude regions of the ionosphere at the point of release are obtained. It is useful for further study of dynamics in low-latitude ionosphere region.