Radio and Plasma Wave Investigation (WAVES) on WIND

The main purpose of the Wind spacecraft is to measure the incoming solar wind, magnetic fields and particles, although early on it will also observe the Earth's foreshock region. Wind, together with Geotail, Polar, SOHO, and Cluster projects, constitute a cooperative scientific satellite project designated the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) program which aims at gaining improved understanding of the physics of solar terrestrial relations. The WAVES investigation on the WIND spacecraft provides comprehensive coverage of radio and plasma wave phenomena in the frequency range from a fraction of a Hertz up to about 14 MHz for the electric field and 3 kHz for the magnetic field. This package will permit several kind of measurements, all of which are essential to understanding the Earth's environment --the Geospace-- and its response to varying solar wind conditions. In situ measurements of different modes of plasma waves will give information on local processes and couplings in different regions and boundaries of the Geospace leading to plasma instabilities: magneto-acoustic waves, ion cyclotron waves, whistler waves, electron plasma oscillations, electron burst noise and other types of electrostatic or electromagnetic waves. and from the Polar-Wind-Geotail (PWG) Data Archive (ftp://pwgdata.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/00readme.html) and at the NSSDC CDAWeb (http://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/cdaweb/)