Development of Langmuir and Electron Probe for KSR-III

Abstract

KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has measured the ionospheric electron temperature and density over the Korean Peninsular with the Langmuir and Electron Probe(LEP) onboard the Korean Sounding Rocket-II(KSR-II) in 1998. The purpose of LEP is to measure the electron density and temperature profile in the ionosphere. LEP consists of the Langmuir probe(LP) and the Electron Temperature Probe(ETP) which are widely used for the measurement of the ionospheric plasma environment. We discuss the development of the Langmuir and Electron Probe which will be onboard the KSR-III and some test results in a simulated space plasma environment with the plasma chamber at the ISAS in Japan. These measurements could contribute to the basic study of ionospheric environment which also can be compared with other reference models such as IRI and PIM.

Keywords

• instrumentation