Inner radiation belt source of helium and heavy hydrogen isotopes

Nuclear interactions between inner zone protons and atoms in the upper atmosphere provide the main source of energetic H and He isotopes nuclei in the radiation belt. This paper reports on the specified calculations of these isotope intensities using various inner zone proton intensity models (AP-8 and SAMPEX/PET PSB97), the atmosphere drift-averaged composition and density model MSIS-90, and cross-sections of the interaction processes from the GNASH nuclear model code. To calculate drift-averaged densities and energy losses of secondaries, the particles were tracked in the geomagnetic field (modelled through IGRF-95) by integrating numerically the equation of the motion. The calculations take into account the kinematics of nuclear interactions along the whole trajectory of trapped proton. The comparison with new data obtained from the experiments on board RESURS-04 and MITA satellites and with data from SAMPEX and CRRES satellites taken during different phases of solar activity shows that the upper atmosphere is a sufficient source for inner zone helium and heavy hydrogen isotopes. The calculation results are energy spectra and angular distributions of light nuclear isotopes in the inner radiation belt that may be used to develop helium inner radiation belt model and to evaluate their contribution to SEU (single event upset) rates

Time dependence of the e^- flux measured by PAMELA during the July 2006 - December 2009 solar minimum

Precision measurements of the electron component in the cosmic radiation provide important information about the origin and propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy not accessible from the study of the cosmic-ray nuclear components due to their differing diffusion and energy-loss processes. However, when measured near Earth, the effects of propagation and modulation of galactic cosmic rays in the heliosphere, particularly significant for energies up to at least 30 GeV, must be properly taken into account. In this paper the electron (e^-) spectra measured by PAMELA down to 70 MeV from July 2006 to December 2009 over six-months time intervals are presented. Fluxes are compared with a state-of-the-art three-dimensional model of solar modulation that reproduces the observations remarkably well.Comment: 40 pages, 18 figures, 1 tabl

Time dependence of the proton flux measured by PAMELA during the July 2006 - December 2009 solar minimum

The energy spectra of galactic cosmic rays carry fundamental information regarding their origin and propagation. These spectra, when measured near Earth, are significantly affected by the solar magnetic field. A comprehensive description of the cosmic radiation must therefore include the transport and modulation of cosmic rays inside the heliosphere. During the end of the last decade the Sun underwent a peculiarly long quiet phase well suited to study modulation processes. In this paper we present proton spectra measured from July 2006 to December 2009 by PAMELA. The large collected statistics of protons allowed the time variation to be followed on a nearly monthly basis down to 400 MV. Data are compared with a state-of-the-art three-dimensional model of solar modulation.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, to appear in Astrophysical Journal. Corrected two elements of Table

Time dependence of the electron and positron components of the cosmic radiation measured by the PAMELA experiment between July 2006 and December 2015

Cosmic-ray electrons and positrons are a unique probe of the propagation of cosmic rays as well as of the nature and distribution of particle sources in our Galaxy. Recent measurements of these particles are challenging our basic understanding of the mechanisms of production, acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays. Particularly striking are the differences between the low energy results collected by the space-borne PAMELA and AMS-02 experiments and older measurements pointing to sign-charge dependence of the solar modulation of cosmic-ray spectra. The PAMELA experiment has been measuring the time variation of the positron and electron intensity at Earth from July 2006 to December 2015 covering the period for the minimum of solar cycle 23 (2006-2009) till the middle of the maximum of solar cycle 24, through the polarity reversal of the heliospheric magnetic field which took place between 2013 and 2014. The positron to electron ratio measured in this time period clearly shows a sign-charge dependence of the solar modulation introduced by particle drifts. These results provide the first clear and continuous observation of how drift effects on solar modulation have unfolded with time from solar minimum to solar maximum and their dependence on the particle rigidity and the cyclic polarity of the solar magnetic field.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

The measurements of light high-energy ions in NINA-2 experiment

The flux of energetic light ions at low altitude is both an important input and output for self-consistent calculations of albedo particles resulting from the interaction of trapped and cosmic ray particles, with the upper atmosphere. In addition, data on the flux of light ions are needed to evaluate radiation damages on space-borne instruments and on space mission crews. In spite of that, sources of data on the flux of energetic ions at LEO are roughly limited to the AP-8 model, CREME/CREME96 codes and the SAMPEX, NOAA/TIROS satellites. The existing and operational European SAC-C/ICARE and PROBA-1/SREM instruments could also be potential sources for proton data at LEO. Although AP-8 and SAMPEX/PSB97 may be publicly accessed through the SPENVIS, they exhibit an order of magnitude difference in low altitude proton fluxes and they do not contain helium fluxes. Therefore, improved light ion radiation models are still needed. <br><br> In this paper we present a procedure to identify and measure the energy of ions that are not stopped in the NINA-2 instrument. Moreover, problems related to particles that cross the instrument in the opposite direction are addressed and shown to be a possible cause of particle misidentification. Measuring fluxes of low abundance elements like energetic helium ions requires a good characterisation of all possible sources of backgrounds in the detector. Hints to determine the several contributions to the background are presented herein and may be applied to extract an order of magnitude of energetic ions fluxes from existing data sets, while waiting for dedicated high performance instruments

PAMELA's measurements of geomagnetic cutoff variations during solar energetic particle events

Data from the PAMELA satellite experiment were used to measure the geomagnetic cutoff for high-energy ($\gtrsim$ 80 MeV) protons during the solar particle events on 2006 December 13 and 14. The variations of the cutoff latitude as a function of rigidity were studied on relatively short timescales, corresponding to single spacecraft orbits (about 94 minutes). Estimated cutoff values were cross-checked with those obtained by means of a trajectory tracing approach based on dynamical empirical modeling of the Earth's magnetosphere. We find significant variations in the cutoff latitude, with a maximum suppression of about 6 deg for $\sim$80 MeV protons during the main phase of the storm. The observed reduction in the geomagnetic shielding and its temporal evolution were compared with the changes in the magnetosphere configuration, investigating the role of IMF, solar wind and geomagnetic (Kp, Dst and Sym-H indexes) variables and their correlation with PAMELA cutoff results.Comment: Conference: The 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), 30 July - 6 August, 2015, The Hague, The Netherlands, Volume: PoS(ICRC2015)28

A new measurement of the antiproton-to-proton flux ratio up to 100 GeV in the cosmic radiation

A new measurement of the cosmic ray antiproton-to-proton flux ratio between 1 and 100 GeV is presented. The results were obtained with the PAMELA experiment, which was launched into low-earth orbit on-board the Resurs-DK1 satellite on June 15th 2006. During 500 days of data collection a total of about 1000 antiprotons have been identified, including 100 above an energy of 20 GeV. The high-energy results are a ten-fold improvement in statistics with respect to all previously published data. The data follow the trend expected from secondary production calculations and significantly constrain contributions from exotic sources, e.g. dark matter particle annihilations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Two years of flight of the Pamela experiment: results and perspectives

PAMELA is a satellite borne experiment designed to study with great accuracy cosmic rays of galactic, solar, and trapped nature in a wide energy range (protons: 80 MeV-700 GeV, electrons 50 MeV-400 GeV). Main objective is the study of the antimatter component: antiprotons (80 MeV-190 GeV), positrons (50 MeV-270 GeV) and search for antinuclei with a precision of the order of $10^{-8}$). The experiment, housed on board the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite, was launched on June, $15^{th}$ 2006 in a $350\times 600 km$ orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees. In this work we describe the scientific objectives and the performance of PAMELA in its first two years of operation. Data on protons of trapped, secondary and galactic nature - as well as measurements of the December $13^{th}$ 2006 Solar Particle Event - are also provided.Comment: To appear on J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. as part of the proceedings of the International Workshop on Advances in Cosmic Ray Science March, 17-19, 2008 Waseda University, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japa

Measurement of the isotopic composition of hydrogen and helium nuclei in cosmic rays with the PAMELA experiment

The satellite-borne experiment PAMELA has been used to make new measurements of cosmic ray H and He isotopes. The isotopic composition was measured between 100 and 600 MeV/n for hydrogen and between 100 and 900 MeV/n for helium isotopes over the 23rd solar minimum from July 2006 to December 2007. The energy spectrum of these components carries fundamental information regarding the propagation of cosmic rays in the galaxy which are competitive with those obtained from other secondary to primary measurements such as B/C.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. To appear in Astrophysical Journa