Experimental and theoretical studies of effective power supplies for plasma loads of the pulsed plasma accelerator type are presented. Increasing the power supply of plasma loads while maintaining the conditions of their matched operation and, as a result, increassing the total energy input into the plasma formations of a pulsed plasma accelerator, is an urgent research task. The comparative characteristics of the accelerator operation when using power sources based on capacitive storages and spiral-type explosive magnetic generators with a current pulse generation device are presented. A technique that allows working out the optimal operating modes of a pulsed plasma accelerator by conducting a series of preliminary experiments with high-voltage capacitive storages and calculations based on semiempirical models is described in order to proceed to explosive experiments with a generator in the future. The aim of this approach is to matched the output parameters of explosive magnetic generators with the dynamics of plasma motion in the accelerator. A series of laboratory experiments on the efficient transfer of energy from explosive magnetic generators to a pulsed plasma accelerator at current levels in the plasma load of over 3.5 MA is presented.

The block for triggering a controlled arrester of the RVU-43 type is described. To start, an optical pulse from the clock generator is used, which is fed through a plastic light guide to the photodetector of the trigger unit. The amplitude of the trigger voltage pulse (in the absence of a breakdown of the controlled arrester) is not less than 7 kV. The amplitude of the trigger current pulse (after the breakdown of the controlled spark gap) is not more than 5 kA. The front of the trigger voltage pulses is not more than 0.1 µs. The delay from the input clock pulse to the appearance of voltage at the output of the trigger unit is no more than 0.5 μs. The trigger unit does not require additional electrical power. Power is supplied from a capacitive storage through a high-resistance resistor. The maximum current consumption does not exceed 1 mA. The operating voltage of the capacitive storage is from 1 to 50 kV.

Explosive-magnetic generators (EMGs) unlike capacitive storages (CSs), as a rule, have growing power. The effective operation of pulsed plasma loads, such as pulsed plasma accelerators (PPAs), plasma foci, plasma breakers, etc, can be provided at realization of the mentioned advantage of EMG as a power source. A technique of laboratory experiments with PPA is presented in this paper. The experiments with PPA powered by CS precede the explosive experiment with EMG. The dependencies of the load operation modes on the start parameters are determined by the analysis of the experimental data. They included the dynamics of the inductance and the position of the current shell inside the PPA. The technique allows reducing the number of expensive explosive experiments and supplements the database of nonlinear dependencies of the load parameters under various amplitudes of the current pulse that is important for mathematical modeling. The technique based on experiments together with the estimations allowed solving the problem of matching of non-linear loads type PPA with EMG. Thus, the productivity of experiments with EMG increases greatly. The developed technique can be adapted to a wide class of nonlinear loads.

A current collector with a solid-state discharger for 268 input and the same number of outgoing RK-50-9 RF cables from a high-voltage capacitive storage to the load is described. The spark discharger is started using a special initiator. The discharger design has a number of elements that reduce the self-inductance of the spark gap to 50 nH and increases the reliability of its operation via partitioning of cables (switching is performed by forming plasma contacts simultaneously at six points). The delay time of the discharger response is ~5.5 μs with an operation-time instability of approximately 500 ns.

This paper describes an air gap that switches one of the sections of capacitive storage, which consists of 234 K41I-7 capacitors (5 kV, 23.4 mF). The arrester is launched from a special plasma initiator. The design of the arrester used elements that allow a large electric charge to pass with the ability for subsequent rapid replacement. The response time delay of the arrester is ~20 μs with instability of the response time of the order of 10 μs. This air gap was used to switch a capacitive storage device consisting of 160 K75-100 capacitors (176 mF, 6 kV).

In this paper, we consider the model of engineering calculation for the matching of the explosive-magnetic generators (EMG) and pulsed plasma accelerator (PPA) at amplitudes of currents reaching 2.5 MA. The main features of the model are taking into account the dynamics of change in the inductance of PPA and the using of the concentrated mass approximation for the current shell. The taken assumptions were checked by experimental data on real PPA powered by EMG. It is shown that the built model has sufficient accuracy for preliminary calculations for design and installation of such technique.

A mobile testing complex prototype on the basis of an explosive magnetic generator (MTC EMG) is developed to simulate a lightning current pulse. The main element of this complex is a current pulse generator comprising a EMG with a pulse transformer for energy release into the load. The electric chain of the MTC EMG is theoretically analyzed taking into consideration energy losses in active resistances in the primary circuit of the transformer and the inductive-resistive nature of the load, which resulted in the minimization of energy losses in the primary circuit depending on the electric chain parameters. It was found that, if the energy losses are minimized, the efficiency of transferring the EMG energy into the load exceeds 50%. As a result of the field tests of the MTC EMG, its basic characteristics were determined and the waveforms of the current pulses and voltages in the load were obtained. It is shown that the results of the mathematical simulation of current pulses in the load are in good agreement with the experimental data.

This Chapter describes the physical characteristics of RPS-1 device and some of experimental results of observations onboard CORONAS-F satellite. Semiconductor spectrometer registered x-ray radiation in the range 3–31.5 Kev. Detailed spectral and time characteristics of weak solar flares were obtained for the first time under relatively low solar activity conditions and at the satellite passage outside the Earth Radiation Belts (ERB). It was established that the increase of solar activity was accompanied by the hardening of the background radiation spectra (without flares). Observations of the nighttime Earth atmosphere visualized the ERBs dynamics (disruption of the northern radiation belt in summer 2002) in the period following the cycle maximum. The energy of the nighttime X-ray emission of the upper atmosphere caused by precipitating magnetospheric electrons did not exceed 8 keV. The energy of GCR contribution to this emission did not exceed 5 keV

The RPS-1 spectrometer on the board of the Coronas-F satellite detecting solar X-rays in the range of 3–31.5 keV using a CdTe detector is described and some results of the observation of weak solar flares are presented.