Interkosmos 18 [Yuzhnoye]
Official name INTERCOSMOS 18
Alternative name Intercosmos 18
Cospar ID 1978-099A
Norad ID 11082
Launch date 1978-10-24
Launch site PKMTR
Launch vehicle Kosmos-3M
Country/Organization International
Type application Science
Operator Interkosmos
RCS size LARGE
Decay date 1981-03-17
Shape Oct Ell
Mass (kg) 545.09
Height (m) 1.8
Width (m) 1.5
Depth (m) 1.8
Span (m^2) 1.8
Lifetime 6 months
Contractors Yuzhnoye
Configuration AUOS-Z
Power 8 deployable fixed solar arrays, solar cells, batteries

Launched during the IMS period, Intercosmos 18 experiment objective was to study the character of the ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling by continuing experiments similar to those on Intercosmos 10. Both real-time and stored data modes were used. The satellite measurements were accompanied by simultaneous ground-based, balloon, and rocket observations. The parameters were

  • geomagnetic field (3 components),
  • low-energy particle fluxes and their angular distributions (electrons and positive ions, 100 eV to 50 keV.,
  • VLF wave electric and magnetic components (100 Hz to 16 kHz),
  • electrostatic fields of magnetospheric-ionospheric origin by a double-probe technique (3 components),
  • electron and ion densities and temperatures using several techniques, and
  • the ion and neutral composition of the upper atmosphere.
Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
INTERCOSMOS 18 1978-099A 1978-10-24 PKMTR Kosmos-3M with Magion 1