EFW Data Validation

This page has not been completed, and is probably not yet useful.

Cluster Hardware Issues

As of 2002-09, there are three main hardware issues that users should be aware of:

There have been two probe failures:

SC1 P1 failure 2001-12-28
SC3 P1 failure 2002-07-29

The likely cause of these failures is a failure of the 12 V power to the preamplifier in the puck. This is likely a mechanical issue, and is not expected to be remediable. Further information can be found on the operations page [link].

The bias current has been changed a few times throughout the mission:

2001-02-01: 180nA on P12, 220nA on P34 (initial setup)
2001-04-25: 180nA on all probes
2001-06-01: 140nA on all probes

These changes have occured sporadically as our understanding of the instrument and its best settings has improved. These changes will generally be transparent to users of the electric field data, although there is a noticeable effect on the spacecraft potential. Further information can be found on the operations page [link].

There was a filter malfunction on SC3 probe 2, so that the filter settings have been changed:

2001-02-01 - 2001-06-xx: 10Hz filters on all SC
2001-06-xx - 2001-07-30: 10Hz filters on all SC, but SC2 probe 3 filter malfunctioning
2001-07-30 - 2001-09-02: 180Hz filters on all SC

Other miscellaneous, and generally short-lived, interuptions in the data have occured. These intervals are listed on the operations page [link]

Back to "How to use EFW"

http://cluter.irfu.se/ops/validation/index.html
last modified on 28-Nov-2002