Cluster FGM Operations and Calibration

“星团”是欧洲航天局的一个任务，由四个航天器发射到地球轨道上。这四艘宇宙飞船各携带11台仪器，共同用于探测控制地球无碰撞等离子体环境的物理过程。宇宙飞船以四面体的形式飞行，使得等离子体的三维结构第一次可以在现场测量，并与等离子体随时间的变化区别开来。星系团轨道将航天器带过地球磁层区域，这些区域是无碰撞等离子体基本过程的所在地，包括太阳风中的磁流体动力学（MHD）湍流、无碰撞冲击过程中的能量分配、磁层顶通过重联和其他过程进行的能量转移、通过尖峰进入磁层的能量流、极光区的粒子加速和亚暴过程。包括磁尾中的重连和电流中断。帝国理工学院是磁通门磁力计（FGM）的主要研究机构，该磁力计构成每个群集有效载荷的一部分。磁场是理解无碰撞等离子体行为的关键参数，因此FGM仪器对使用Cluster数据进行的几乎所有科学研究都有贡献。作为PI机构，我们负责四个FGM仪器的日常运行和持续健康，维护实时向有效载荷上的其他仪器提供数据的链接，以及校准和向欧空局建立和运行的群集活动档案（CAA）提供适合详细科学分析的高分辨率数据。这笔赠款的目的是请求支持在集群任务的其余部分继续履行这些职责，目前计划至少持续到2009年12月，并有可能再延长3年。

Cluster is a European Space Agency mission of four spacecraft launched into orbit around the Earth. The four spacecraft carry 11 instruments each, together designed to probe the physical processes that control the collisionless plasma environment of the Earth. The spacecraft fly in a tetrahedron formation, allowing the three dimensional structure of the plasma to be measured in-situ for the first time, and distinguished from variations in the plasma as a function of time. The Cluster orbit takes the spacecraft through regions of the Earth's magnetosphere that are the sites of fundamental processes in collisionless plasmas, including magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the solar wind, energy partition in collisionless shock processes, energy transfer through reconnection and other processes at the magnetopause, energy flow into the magnetosphere through the cusps, particle acceleration in the auroral zone, and substorm processes, including reconnection and current disruption, in the magnetotail. Imperial College is the Principal Investigator institution for the flux-gate magnetometer (FGM) that forms part of each Cluster payload. The magnetic field is a key parameter in understanding the behaviour of collisionless plasmas, and therefore the FGM instrument contributes to nearly every scientific study carried out using Cluster data. As the PI institution we are responsible for the ongoing routine operation and continued health of the four FGM instruments, the maintenance of the link through which data is supplied in real time to other instruments on the payload, and the calibration and delivery of high resolution data suitable for detailed scientific analysis to the Cluster Active Archive (CAA), set up and run by ESA. The purpose of this grant is to request support for the continuation of these responsibilities for the remainder of the Cluster mission, currently planned to run until at least Dec 2009, with the possibility of an extension for a further 3 years.