Calibration facility for solar wind plasma instrumentation

Space-borne analysis of the composition of the solar wind offers the unique possibility of direct measurement of material originating from the sun. Fo r development, testing, and calibration of solar wind particle instrumentat ion, particle beams of highly charged ions for all elements from hydrogen u p to iron are needed. Although sources for these ions have been available f or some time, the special demands of space instrumentation made it necessar y to build a dedicated facility. We built an electron-cyclotron-resonance i on source operating at 2.45 GHz. The ion source is installed on a high volt age platform allowing for postacceleration potentials of up to 100 kV. Ions are produced from elements in gaseous and solid phase; the latter from vap or emitted from a high temperature furnace closely attached to the ion sour ce. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.