On the Calibration of Plasma Probes on the MAXIDUSTY Mesospheric Rocket Payloads

Plasma probes on rockets are essential tools in investigations of the conditions in the Earth’s mesosphere. However, the calibration of such probes in the NLC cloud regions is normally difficult, partly because electron and ion collision lengths change much and are often comparable to probe sizes, and also since the integrated electron density below the clouds and the resulting Faraday rotation can be small with considerable uncertainties.
In the present work we apply the method proposed by Havnes et al (Rev. Sci. Instr 82, 074503, 2011), where a comparison between variations in a plasma probe and dust impact probe currents is used to calibrate the plasma probe. We focus on the plasma and dust observation by two MAXIDUSTY rocket payloads MXD-1 and MXD-1B, launched in the summer 2016 and compare the plasma probe cross sections found by the above method, with the cross sections found by theoretical estimates and Faraday rotation measurements.