ICE, the electric field experiment on DEMETER

The objective of the ICE (Instrument Champ Electrique) experiment on board DEMETER is to provide a nearly continuous survey of the electromagnetic and/or electrostatic waves that may arise from the coupling of seismic activity with the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. To this aim it makes use of 4 spherical electrodes with embedded preamplifiers that are deployed by stacer booms at approximately 4 m from the satellite. Measurements are made over a wide frequency range from DC to 3.175 MHz, subdivided in the signal processing unit in four frequency channels DC/ULF, ELF, VLF and HF. Three axis measurements are available in the DC/ULF range for all modes of operation of DEMETER and in the ELF range in the DEMETER Burst modes. In the VLF and HF ranges and in ELF during DEMETER Survey modes only one axis of measurement is available that can be selected by telecommand. We present in this paper a general description of the instrument and its modes of operation and in-flight performances. The sensitivity is ∼0.1–0.2 μV/m Hz 1/2 from ∼100 Hz through the HF range and the dynamical range is >80 dB in ELF and VLF and about 42 dB in HF. In order to illustrate the instrument capabilities, we briefly describe a number of observations from the first months of operation in various regions along the orbit from the equator to high latitudes.