THE ELECTRIC FIELD AND WAVE EXPERIMENT FOR CLUSTER

G. Gustafsson(1), L. Ahlen(1), A. I. Eriksson(1), H. Gunnarsson(1), A.

Lundgren(1), H. Thomas(1),

P. Berg(2), P. Harvey(2), K. Khyunge(2), F. Mozer(2), D. Pankow(2), R. Ullrich(2),

P. Falkner(3), R. Grard(3), D. Klinge(3),

S. Christenson(4), P-A. Lindqvist(4), G. Olsson(4),

K. Lappalainen(5), K. Mursula(5), P. Tanskanen(5),

J. Holtet(6), B. Lybekk(6), A. Pedersen(6), T. A. Sten(6), E. Trondsen(6)

(1) Swedish Institute of Space Physics , Uppsala Division, Uppsala, Sweden

(2) Space Sciences Laboratory, UCB, Berkeley, USA

(3) ESA/ESTEC , Noordwijk, The Netherlands

(4) Alfvén Laboratory, Stockholm, Sweden

(5) University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

(6) University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Georg.Gustafsson@irfu.se, Fax +46 18 4715005

Probes of a unique probe-preamplifier design provide measurements of electric

fields and waves from DC to 600 kHz with high accuracy and low noise levels on

Cluster. Each of the four Cluster spacecraft carry two orthogonal pairs of probes in

the spin plane of the spacecraft separated by 88 m. Signals from the probes of the

Electric Field and Wave instrument, called EFW, are distributed to three other wave

experiments on board. Waveform data of the potential between each pair of probes

and the potential between probe and spacecraft, or the current to individual probes,

or a combination of potential and current signals are recorded on EFW up to 31kHz

in some modes. The performance of the new probes and the overall instrument

capability will be demonstrated in the presentation.