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

In Situ Data and Effect Correlation During September 2017 Solar Particle Event

Solar energetic particles are one of the main sources of particle radiation seen in space. In the first part of September 2017 the most active solar period of cycle 24 produced four large X-class flares and a series of (interplanetary) coronal mass ejections, which gave rise to radiation storms seen over all energies and at the ground by neutron monitors. This paper presents comprehensive cross comparisons of in situ radiation detector data from near-Earth satellites to give an appraisal on the state of present data processing for monitors of such particles. Many of these data sets have been the target of previous cross calibrations, and this event with a hard spectrum provides the opportunity to validate these results. As a result of the excellent agreement found between these data sets and the use of neutron monitor data, this paper also presents an analytical expression for fluence spectrum for the event. Derived ionizing dose values have been computed to show that although there is a significant high-energy component, the event was not particularly concerning as regards dose effects in spacecraft electronics. Several sets of spacecraft data illustrating single event effects are presented showing a more significant impact in this regard. Such a hard event can penetrate thick shielding; human dose quantities measured inside the International Space Station and derived through modeling for aircraft altitudes are also presented. Lastly, simulation results of coronal mass ejection propagation through the heliosphere are presented along with data from Mars-orbiting spacecraft in addition to data from the Mars surface

Fluxes of energetic protons and electrons measured on board the Oersted satellite

International audienceThe Charged Particle Detector (CPD) on board the Oersted satellite (649 km perigee, 865 km apogee and 96.48° inclination) currently measures energetic protons and electrons. The measured peak fluxes of E>1 MeV electrons are found to confirm the predictions of AE8-MAX, though they occur at a geographical position relatively shifted in the SAA. The fluxes of protons are one order of magnitude higher than the predictions of AP8-MAX in the energy range 20-500 MeV. This huge discrepancy between AP8 and recent measurements in LEO was already noticed and modelled in SAMPEX/PSB97 and TPM-1 models. Nevertheless some other LEO measurements such as PROBA and CORONA-F result in flux values in good agreement with AP8 within a factor 2. The anisotropy of the low-altitude proton flux, combined with measurement performed on board three-axis stabilised satellites, has been suspected to be one possible source of the important discrepancies observed by different missions. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of anisotropy on flux measurements conducted using the CPD instruments. On the basis of the available data, we confirm the inaccuracy of AP8 at LEO and suggest methods to improve the analysis of data in future flux measurements of energetic protons at low altitudes

Low altitude energetic electron lifetimes after enhanced magnetic activity as deduced from SAC-C and DEMETER data

When flux enhancements of energetic electrons are produced as a consequence of geomagnetic storm occurrence, they tend to vanish gradually when the magnetic activity calms down and the fluxes decay to quiet-time levels. We use SAC-C and DEMETER low altitude observations to estimate the energetic electron lifetimes (E=0.16-1.4 MeV, L=1.6-5, B=0.22-0.46 G) and compare the decay rates to those observed at high altitude. While crossing the radiation belts at high latitude, the SAC-C and DEMETER instruments sample particles with small equatorial pitch angles (alpha(eq) 2.5) whereas the comparison is done with other satellite data measured mainly in the equatorial plane (for alpha(eq) > 75 degrees). While in the inner belt and in the slot region no significant lifetime differences are observed from the data sets with different alpha(eq), in the outer belt, for the least energetic electrons (<500 keV), the lifetimes are up to similar to 3 times larger for the electrons with the equatorial pitch-angle close to the loss cone than for those mirroring near the equator. The difference decreases with increasing energy and vanishes for energies of about 1 MeV

Fluxes of energetic protons and electrons measured on board the Oersted satellite

International audienceThe Charged Particle Detector (CPD) on board the Oersted satellite (649 km perigee, 865 km apogee and 96.48° inclination) currently measures energetic protons and electrons. The measured peak fluxes of E>1 MeV electrons are found to confirm the predictions of AE8-MAX, though they occur at a geographical position relatively shifted in the SAA. The fluxes of protons are one order of magnitude higher than the predictions of AP8-MAX in the energy range 20-500 MeV. This huge discrepancy between AP8 and recent measurements in LEO was already noticed and modelled in SAMPEX/PSB97 and TPM-1 models. Nevertheless some other LEO measurements such as PROBA and CORONA-F result in flux values in good agreement with AP8 within a factor 2. The anisotropy of the low-altitude proton flux, combined with measurement performed on board three-axis stabilised satellites, has been suspected to be one possible source of the important discrepancies observed by different missions. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of anisotropy on flux measurements conducted using the CPD instruments. On the basis of the available data, we confirm the inaccuracy of AP8 at LEO and suggest methods to improve the analysis of data in future flux measurements of energetic protons at low altitudes

In Situ Data and Effect Correlation During September 2017 Solar Particle Event

Solar energetic particles are one of the main sources of particle radiation seen in space. In the first part of September 2017 the most active solar period of cycle 24 produced four large X-class flares and a series of (interplanetary) coronal mass ejections, which gave rise to radiation storms seen over all energies and at the ground by neutron monitors. This paper presents comprehensive cross comparisons of in situ radiation detector data fromnear-Earth satellites to give an appraisal on the state of present data processing for monitors of such particles. Many of these data sets have been the target of previous cross calibrations, and this event with a hard spectrum provides the opportunity to validate these results. As a result of the excellent agreement found between these data sets and the use of neutron monitor data, this paper also presents an analytical expression for fluence spectrum for the event. Derived ionizing dose values have been computed to show that although there is a significant high-energy component, the event was not particularly concerning as regards dose effects in spacecraft electronics. Several sets of spacecraft data illustrating single event effects are presented showing a more significant impact in this regard. Such a hard event can penetrate thick shielding; human dose quantities measured inside the International Space Station and derived through modeling for aircraft altitudes are also presented. Lastly, simulation results of coronal mass ejection propagation through the heliosphere are presented along with data from Mars-orbiting spacecraft in addition to data from the Mars surface