1990 Volume 42 Issue 4 Pages 459-478
The VLF wave instruments on board Akebono (EXOS-D) involve a wide band analyzer (WBA), multi-channel analyzers (MCA), Poynting flux analyzers (PFX), ELF frequency analyzers and a vector impedance probe (VIP) and cover a frequency range from a few Hz to 17.8kHz for electric and magnetic field components. The main objectives of the wave observations are to investigate the wave phenomena closely associated with energetic particle precipitation in the auroral zone and the physics of wave-wave and wave-particle interaction phenomena. In order to clarify these wave characteristics, the determination of the wave normal direction and the direction of the Poynting vectors are essential. Our VLF instruments, especially PFX and ELF, are designed to satisfy such requirements. The present paper introduces all the subsystems of the VLF instruments and some preliminary results of observations to show the characteristic features of each subsystem.
