SMILE Light Ion Analyser (LIA)
Date: 25 February 2019
Satellite: SMILE
Depicts: Light Ion Analyser (LIA)
Copyright: NSSC/CAS
SMILE will carry a Light Ion Analyser (LIA) as part of its instrument and experiment suite.
The LIA will determine the properties and behaviour of the solar wind and magnetosheath under various conditions by measuring the three-dimensional velocity distribution of solar wind ions. It is capable of sampling the three-dimensional distribution of the solar wind and magnetosheath at all points in orbit, and can vary its energy sensitivity from 0.2 to 20 keV/q, and its field of view, to study different plasma populations, with a time resolution of up to 0.5 seconds.
Two LIA sensors will be placed on opposite sides of the platform to obtain the full 4π three-dimensional distribution of the ions in the solar wind and magnetosheath.
The Light Ion Analyser on SMILE will be built by the Chinese National Space Science Centre in collaboration with University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL-MSSL), UK, and the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP), France.
