The neutral mass spectrometer on Dynamics Explorer B

Abstract

A neutral gas mass spectrometer has been developed to satisfy the measurement requirements of the Dynamics Explorer mission. The mass spectrometer, a quadrupole, will measure the abundances of neutral species in the region 300-500 km in the earth's atmosphere. These measurements will be used in concert with other simultaneous observations on Dynamics Explorer to study the physical processes involved in the interactions of the magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere system. The instrument, which is similar to that flown on Atmosphere Explorer, employs an electron beam ion source operating in the closed mode and a discrete dynode multiplier as a detector. The mass range is 22 to 50 amu. The abundances of atomic oxygen, molecular nitrogen, helium, argon, and possibly atomic nitrogen will be measured to an accuracy of about + or - 15% over the specified altitude range, with a temporal resolution of one second.