Satheesh Thampi

NameR Satheesh Thampi
AffiliationSPL/VSSC/ISRO
TitleScientific objectives of Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payload onboard Aditya-L1 Mission
AuthorsR Satheesh Thampi and PAPA Team
AbstractSolar wind is a magnetized plasma consisting of charged particles with embedded magnetic field, flowing out of the Sun in all directions at very high speeds. Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) is an in-situ observing payload onboard Aditya-L1 Mission, meant for exploring the solar wind composition and its energy distribution by measuring electrons and ions from the first Lagrangian point (L1). PAPA has two sensors: Solar Wind Electron Energy Probe (SWEEP) and Solar Wind Ion Composition AnalyseR (SWICAR), which would measure, respectively, the solar wind electron and ion fluxes and composition as a function of direction and energy. SWICAR also provides: (1) the elemental composition of solar wind low energy ions, and (2) the differential energy spectra, abundances of dominant ion species in the mass range 1-60 amu with energies between 0.01 and 25 keV/q. From the differential energy spectra, the macroscopic properties such as the bulk velocity, density and kinetic temperature of the dominant solar wind ion species can be derived routinely, and which can be used to identify sources of low energy ion populations as well as the nature and dynamics of solar wind plasma. In this talk, the scientific objectives of the PAPA payload will be presented and discussed in detail.