Concept information
Preferred term
RPA
Definition
- The Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA) which was developed at the University of Texas at Dallas, were flown aboard NASA's Dynamics Explorer-2 spacecraft. It consists of two planar sensors that view approximately along the spacecraft velocity vector. One sensor provides a measure of the total ion flux entering the sensor aperture from which structure in this parameter can be measured with extreme sensitivity. The other sensor has internal grids that can be stepped through positive voltage waveforms to modulate the incoming ion flux that reaches the collector. The resulting ion-flux versus retarding potential measurements are used to derive the ion temperature, the ion drift velocity along the sensor look direction ,and the ion composition. [Source: University of Texas, Dallas.] (en)
Broader concept
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/6b018752-d66e-46d7-8fe7-76aa2c8e2e13
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