The Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) for the IMAP Mission.

Abstract

Stationed in an orbit about the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, L1, NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission is designed to provide well-coordinated measurements of the in-situ solar wind (SW) plasma and interplanetary magnetic field, interstellar pickup ions (PUIs), suprathermal and energetic ions, interstellar and energetic neutral atoms (ENAs), interstellar dust, and 3-dimensional (3D) maps of the global solar wind structure. Together these measurements from ten instruments address two key Heliophysics objectives, namely, 1) the acceleration of charged particles and 2) the interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium. This paper describes one of the five in-situ instruments - the Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) that provides comprehensive measurements of the source populations and the charged particles that are accelerated near the Sun and throughout the heliosphere and beyond. CoDICE also provides the 3D velocity distribution functions (3D VDFs) of interstellar PU He⁺ ions and the isotopic composition of interstellar He and Ne PUIs, thus enabling detailed studies of the properties of the local interstellar medium (LISM) and its interactions with the SW and our heliosphere. CoDICE is a next generation instrument that combines two measurement systems in a novel, compact design to provide 1) the 3D VDFs and mass, isotopic, and ionic charge state composition of the lower energy SW, suprathermal, and PUIs between ∼0.5-80 keV/q, and 2) the arrival directions, and mass and isotopic composition of higher energy H-Fe ions between ∼0.03-5 MeV/nuc. CoDICE also provides measurements of SW abundances and charge states, as well as the intensities of suprathermal protons in four different directions to the real-time I-ALiRT data stream for Space Weather research and monitoring.