Resonance method for measuring ionospheric plasma density onboard microsatellites

A method has been developed for diagnostics of the ionospheric plasma density on board a microsatellite using a resonator made on a segment of a two-wire line. The measurements of plasma parameters are based on the amplitude-phase method, which permits extanding the dynamic range of measured values by three orders of magnitude without increasing the resonator length. The paper presents a measurement technique and its experimental testing on a plasma setup under conditions as close as possible to the ionospheric ones.