Detailed Description of the GOES-R Space Weather Medium- and High-Energy Particle Instruments and Their Data Processing Algorithms with Applications to Expected On-Orbit Performance

Abstract:

The space weather instruments (Space Environment In-Situ Suite – SEISS) on the soon to be launched, NOAA GOES-R spacecraft offer significant performance advances over the previous GOES N-O series instruments. The medium- and high-energy particle instruments, MPS-HI and SGPS, measure differential proton spectra from 80 keV to 500 MeV in a total of 21 logarithmically spaced channels and electrons from 50 keV to 10 MeV in 10 logarithmically spaced channels. These instruments use solid state silicon detectors as sensor. Their designs feature multi-detector coincidence telescopes, combined with degrader material, tungsten shielding and data processing algorithms to optimize the signal to noise ratio. Details of the mechanical and electronic design will be presented. Key aspects of data processing including background subtraction techniques and a novel method to distinguish high energy rear entry particles from front entry ones will be described. Results of extensive modeling with GEANT4 will be compared with calibration data measured over nearly the entire energy range of the instruments. Combination of the two will be used to calculate the geometric factors of the various energy channels. A listing of the channels and their properties will be presented. The calibrated geometric factors and typical and extreme space weather environments will be used to calculate the expected on-orbit performance. The specifications that the instruments met ensure proper operation under the most stressful high flux conditions corresponding to the largest solar particle event expected during the program and high sensitivity at low flux levels. Comparisons will be made between the enhanced GOES-R instruments and the current GOES space weather measurement capabilities.