Over the last few decades, the role of ionospheric outflow for the loss of atmospheric constituents, as a plasma supplier to the magnetosphere and hence for the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere has been recognized. A substantial amount of the outflow is thought to be caused by the presence of an ambipolar electric field aligned with the open magnetic field lines of the polar region. To better understand how the changes in outflow are influenced by the solar and geomagnetic activity, it is critical to get a better understanding of the impact of this electric field, and to be able to measure it under various conditions. However, such measurements are not possible with present techniques. In this paper, we propose a new technique to measure the tiny electric field. This technique builds on existing instrument technology but extends the capability to measure the very small electric fields. We present the underlying design concept and demonstrate that this concept is viable and able to measure the very small ambipolar electric fields thought to play a key role in the polar wind.

中文翻译：

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测量驱动电离层流出的双极性电场的新概念

在过去的几十年中，人们已经认识到电离层流出对于大气成分的损失，作为磁层的等离子体供应者以及因此对地球大气演变的作用。认为大量流出是由与极性区域的开放磁场线对准的双极性电场的存在引起的。为了更好地了解太阳和地磁活动如何影响流出的变化，至关重要的是要更好地了解该电场的影响，并能够在各种条件下对其进行测量。但是，用当前技术不可能进行这样的测量。在本文中，我们提出了一种测量微小电场的新技术。该技术建立在现有仪器技术的基础上，但扩展了测量非常小的电场的能力。我们提出了基本的设计概念，并证明了该概念是可行的，并且能够测量被认为在极风中起关键作用的很小的双极性电场。