Calibrating and deriving physical parameters using plasma contactor data from the international space station Original Research Article

The International Space Station (ISS) regularly passes through the southern auroral oval south of Australia. The ISS has two plasma contactors that emit the electron currents needed to balance electron collection by surfaces such as the lattice of bare rods on the solar array masts. These electron currents exceed 0.1 A at times. The largest currents are observed in the auroral oval south of Australia. On the space station, the solar array 40 m long masts each have over 400 m of stainless steel tensioning rods. When subject to orbital v × B· l induced potentials, the rods collect substantial currents from the ionosphere. Maximum v × B· l potentials are generated near the magnetic poles. The plasma contactor emission current can be converted to an estimate of plasma density and calibrated using Floating Potential Probe (FPP) and other data. These measurements show that the plasma density in the nighttime auroral ionosphere is frequently several times that predicted by the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI)-90 and IRI2001 models.