Other applications of URAP data

The waves observed by URAP are primarily studied to better understand the physical mechanisms that create them, but the observations also permit the determination of important parameters describing the plasma and magnetic field in which the spacecraft travels. Examples include:

measuring the electron density, temperature, and bulk velocity by fitting the thermal noise spectrum of the electrons (see example of spectrum below)

measuring the electron density in the solar wind (and electron density and magnetic field strength in the Jovian magnetosphere) using the resonance sounder

identifying rapid fluctuations in the solar wind, which produce waves but which occur too quickly to be detected by the Ulysses particle instruments

Sample thermal noise spectrum