Assessing Cusp Core Plasma Heating With VISIONS-2

Abstract:

In December of 2018, the Visualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral Atom Sensing-2 (VISIONS-2) mission launched with the aim of increasing the understanding of ionospheric ion outflow in the polar cusp. On board, two miniaturized plasma imagers collected two-dimensional distributions of ion kinetic energy and ion angle of arrival to determine core ionospheric density, velocity, and temperature. We use flight data to constrain a previously developed instrument modelling technique to assess heating of core plasma. This research establishes a foundation for future comparative analysis of core ions and energetic ions observed on VISIONS-2.