Research on active plasma release experiment in ionosphere

Barium release is one kind of active experiments for space physics research, which can be used to study the near-earth space environment efficiently. In April 2013, the first barium release experiment of China was successfully implemented by Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Hainan Province. Nearly 1 kg barium was released by a sounding rocket at 190 km height in this experiment, which produced a spherical cloud including barium atoms and ions. The evolution process of barium cloud was recorded by ground-based optical observatory, obtaining the whole process of barium cloud brightness, particle density, composition and diffusion range variation with time. Through analysis of barium cloud drift, the neutral wind field characteristics of low-latitude regions of the ionosphere at the point of release are obtained. It is useful for further study of dynamics in low-latitude ionosphere region.