CURRENT-VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TSS-1 SATELLITE

One of the primary science objectives of the TSS 1 project was that of studying the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of a highly charge d body in the ionosphere. In this paper, using data from experiments o f the TSS 1 mission for an event of high satellite charging, we derive points of the I-V characteristics of the TSS satellite. These are the n compared with different theoretical models. The comparison shows tha t the measured currents, for given potentials, are well above the pred ictions of the Parker and Murphy model, The results obtained appear, i n fact, to support a model which computes an enhancement of the collec ted current due to the rapid motion of the collector across the geomag netic field.