A laboratory study of the wakes of ionospheric satellites

Abstract

A steady-state plasma wind tunnel is described in which most of the similarity parameters governing the flow around ionospheric satellites can be reproduced. A study is presented of the wakes of bodies (mostly spheres) with dimensions ranging from comparable with the Debye length to large compared with the Debye length. No magnetic field was applied in these experiments. The measurements of near wakes agree in essence with available theory and/or previous experiment. The far wakes of spheres were found to have a wavelike character which was largely independent of body potential.