THE FIRST RESULTS OF THE VARIANT EXPERIMENT ONBOARD THE SICH-1M SATELLITE

The Variant experiment onboard the Sich-1M satellite is an international scientific project for studying the fine structure of electric currents and electromagnetic fields in the ionospheric plasma. The Variant scientific payload includes three types of instruments for the detection of spatial electric current density, namely, split Langmuir probe, Rogovsky coil and Faraday cup as well as sensors for measurements of electric and magnetic fields, namely, electric probes, induction coil and flux-gate magnetometers. The Sich-1M satellite was launched on 24 December 2004 into the polar orbit with an inclination of 83 degrees, an apogee of 650 km, and a perigee of 283 km. During flight tests (the first half of 2005) a set of measurement seances with the Variant payload was realized. The first results of the performed experiments are presented.