Mutual impedance experiments in a laboratory plasma

Experimental validation of numerical modeling

¹ Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace (LPC2E), CNRS, Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France
² LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, UPMC, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Meudon, France
³ Laboratoire Lagrange, OCA, UCA, CNRS, Nice, France
⁴ LPP, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France
⁵ Space Physics Division, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Ringlaan 3, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
⁶ Center for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
⁷ Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Uppsala, Sweden
⁸ Laboratoire Plasma et Conversion d’Energie (LAPLACE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31062 Toulouse, France

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 7 March 2025
Accepted: 30 January 2026

Abstract

Context. In situ measurements of space plasma are necessary to explore heliospheric and planetary ionized environments. Mutual impedance experiments are an active plasma diagnostic technique used to measure the properties of space plasmas, including the plasma density and the electron temperature. Although various models have been developed for unmagnetized space plasmas, they fail to describe the instrument behavior in magnetized plasmas, such as the ionosphere and magnetosphere of magnetized planets and moons. A quantitative instrument model of the mutual impedance experiment is required, however, for current and future space missions, including ESA/JAXA BepiColombo and ESA JUICE, which will both conduct mutual impedance experiments (PWI/AM2P and RPWI/MIME, respectively).

Aims. We develop an instrument model for exploring and quantitatively characterizing mutual impedance experiment measurements performed in planetary plasmas, with the goal of providing in situ diagnostics of the plasma density and electron temperature.

Methods. To reach this goal, we combined numerical investigation and laboratory experiments. We investigated the experimental regime of high magnetization for the first time, where the electron gyrofrequency is higher than the plasma frequency, both experimentally and numerically. On the experimental side, we built a setup composed of a plasma chamber, a mutual impedance experiment, and a Langmuir probe. With this, we achieved a controlled plasma environment representative of magnetized space plasmas, which we diagnosed with two independent plasma instruments. On the numerical side, we developed a model for magnetized mutual impedance experiments that took the geometry of the mutual impedance antennas and the plasma chamber into account and that employed a kinetic linear description of the plasma electrons.

Results. First, we characterized the plasma environment generated in the plasma chamber: the achievable plasma parameters, the stability, and the repeatability of the plasma conditions. Second, we validated the instrument model by comparing the numerical model predictions to the measurements obtained in the plasma chamber. Third, we extracted the plasma density and temperature from in situ mutual impedance measurements using our new numerical instrument model, and we validated them using the independent in situ measurements from the Langmuir probe.

Conclusions. This work (i) proves that mutual impedance experiments are able to provide robust plasma diagnostics in a magnetized space plasma environment, and (ii) develops a methodological framework that will be used for the planetary space missions BepiColombo and JUICE to perform both the in-flight calibration and the exploitation of the measurements from PWI/AM2P and RPWI/MIME, respectively, in the magnetospheres of Mercury, Jupiter, and Ganymede.