amptelogo2 AMPTE Mission Description

from the Science Data Center at JHU/APL

"The CCE instrumentation measured the composition of the magnetospheric particle populations over their full energy range to study the spectral and temporal variations of these populations as a function of species, and used these measurements to study the basic processes of magnetospheric ion energization, transport and loss. The CCE also monitored the access, energization and transport of the artificially injected tracer ions from the AMPTE solar wind and magnetotail tracer releases."

"The CCE carried three highly sensitive instruments (CHEM, HPCE, MEPA) to determine the distribution functions of both common and rare ion species over an energy range extending from eVs to MeVs and electrons over an energy range extending from eVs to keVs. It also carried two instruments to measure the ambient magnetic field (MAG) and the electric component of plasma waves (PWE)." These instruments "collected data over the four-year mission of August 1984 to January 1989 in a roughly 8-Re equatorial orbit".

"The AMPTE CCE Charge-Energy-Mass (CHEM) Spectrometer measured the mass and charge-state compositions as well as the energy spectra and pitch-angle distributions of all major ions from H through Fe with energies from 0.3 to 300 keV/charge and a time resolution of less than 1 minute in the Earth's magnetosphere and magnetosheath. "