Speaker
Description
From missions such as DMSP / SSJ-5 to MMS / FPI, plasma instruments have been a cornerstone of space weather research. With ever-improving performances, the top-hat concept has been widely used, either as a stand-alone analyzer or coupled to a time-of-flight chamber to provide composition measurements.
However, with its field of view (FoV) confined to the azimuthal plane, the top-hat cannot capture the full 3D distribution instantaneously. The classical solution—electrostatic deflectors scanning across the polar direction—reduces temporal resolution, complicates power-supply design, and limits energy range, making it a non-ideal approach for monitoring highly dynamic space-weather environments. Building on the recently introduced donut topology (Hénaff & Berthomier, 2025), we have developed and tested 3DCAM, a compact electrostatic analyzer offering an instantaneous hemispheric FoV. This design enables sequential electron and ion flux measurements with a single electrostatic head. 3DCAM covers energies up to 24 keV with 10% resolution and a geometric factor of 4 × 10⁻⁴ cm²·sr·eV/eV, with 64 simultaneous viewing directions for full 3D coverage.
3DCAM has a sensitivity per channel 50 times higher than SSJ-5 on DMSP, with 10 times more channels, for a mass below 2 kg : this performances can bring new capabilities to the community and open the way to constellations of compact spacecraft dedicated to space weather. The instrument concept, its characterisation, and its potential applications will be presented in detail in this poster.
