Spacecraft wakes in the solar wind

The solar wind flow creates a wake behind any spacecraft immersed in it. We study the properties of this wake using the spherical electrostatic probes of the Electric Fields and Waves (EFW) instruments on the Cluster satellites. The satellites spin in a plane inclined only a few degrees with respect to the ecliptic plane. The solar wind is often close to this plane, so each probe (44 m away from the spin axis) passes through the wake once every spin period (around 4 s), thereby sampling a cut of the wake electrostatic potential structure. The signature of the wake is clearly seen in the data as a pulse with an amplitude typically of a few tenths of a volt. We present statistics of the wake signatures as well…