In this paper we report the detection of five strong Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs)
by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) mounted on board the China
Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01), operational since 2018 on a
Sun-synchronous polar orbit at a ∼ 507 km altitude and 97∘
inclination. HEPD-01 was designed to detect high-energy electrons in the energy
range 3 - 100 MeV, protons in the range 30 - 300 MeV, and light nuclei in the
range 30 - 300 MeV/n. Nonetheless, Monte Carlo simulations have shown HEPD-01
is sensitive to gamma-ray photons in the energy range 300 keV - 50 MeV, even if
with a moderate effective area above ∼ 5 MeV. A dedicated time correlation
analysis between GRBs reported in literature and signals from a set of HEPD-01
trigger configuration masks has confirmed the anticipated detector sensitivity
to high-energy photons. A comparison between the simultaneous time profiles of
HEPD-01 electron fluxes and photons from GRB190114C, GRB190305A, GRB190928A,
GRB200826B and GRB211211A has shown a remarkable similarity, in spite of the
different energy ranges. The high-energy response, with peak sensitivity at
about 2 MeV, and moderate effective area of the detector in the actual flight
configuration explain why these five GRBs, characterised by a fluence above
∼ 3 × 10−5 erg cm−2 in the energy interval 300 keV - 50
MeV, have been detected.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ