HILT: a heavy ion large area proportional counter telescope for solar and anomalous cosmic rays

The HILT sensor has been designed to measure heavy ion elemental abundances, energy spectra, and direction of incidence in the mass range from helium to iron and in the energy range 4-250 MeV/nucleon. With its large geometric factor of 60 cm/sup 2/ sr the sensor is optimized to provide compositional and spectral measurements for low-intensity cosmic rays, i.e., for small solar energetic particle events and for the anomalous component of cosmic rays. The instrument combines a large-area ion-drift-chamber-proportional-counter system with two arrays of 16 Li-drifted solid state detectors and 16 CsI crystals. The multi-dE/dx-E technique provides a low-background mass and energy determination. The sensor also measures particle direction. By combining these measurements with the information on the spacecraft position and attitude in the low-altitude polar orbit, it will be possible to infer the ionic charge of the ions from the local cutoff of the Earth's magnetic field. The ionic charge in this energy range is of particular interest because it provides unique clues to the origin of these particles and has not been investigated systematically so far. >

[1]  B. Klecker,et al.  Comparison of helium and heavy ion spectra in He-3-rich solar flares with model calculations based on stochastic Fermi acceleration in Alfven turbulence , 1982 .

[2]  Donald V. Reames,et al.  Energetic particles from impulsive solar flares , 1990 .

[3]  James H. Adams,et al.  The Charge State of the Anomalous Component of Cosmic Rays , 1991 .

[4]  B. Klecker,et al.  On the charge state of the anomalous oxygen component. [phase lag between galactic cosmic rays and O flux in solar quiet period] , 1980 .

[5]  R. K. Singh,et al.  Ionization states of the anomalous cosmic rays , 1991 .

[6]  George Gloeckler,et al.  Compositions of energetic particle populations in interplanetary space , 1979 .

[7]  Daniel N. Baker,et al.  An overview of the Solar Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) mission , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[8]  J. R. Jokipii.  Particle acceleration at a termination shock 1. Application to the solar wind and the anomalous component , 1986 .

[9]  R. Beaujean,et al.  On the charge state of anomalous oxygen , 1989 .

[10]  Berndt Klecker,et al.  The mean ionic charge of silicon in 3HE-rich solar flares , 1987 .

[11]  Reuven Ramaty,et al.  An interpretation of the observed oxygen and nitrogen enhancements in low energy cosmic rays. , 1973 .

[12]  R. B. Mckibben.  An experimental test for the charge state of the 'anomalous' helium component. [galactic cosmic radiation , 1977 .

[13]  J. O'Gallagher,et al.  The Nuclear and Ionic Charge Distribution Particle Experiments on the ISEE-1 and ISEE-C Spacecraft , 1978, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience Electronics.

[14]  Glenn M. Mason,et al.  LEICA: a low energy ion composition analyzer for the study of solar and magnetospheric heavy ions , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[15]  J. B. Blake,et al.  The SAMPEX data processing unit , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[16]  B. Klecker,et al.  The heavy-ion compositional signature in He-3-rich solar particle events , 1986 .

[17]  J. B. Blake,et al.  Evidence for trapped anomalous cosmic ray oxygen ions in the inner magnetosphere , 1991 .

[18]  Walter R. Cook,et al.  MAST: a mass spectrometer telescope for studies of the isotopic composition of solar, anomalous, and galactic cosmic ray nuclei , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..