The extremely high-energy plasma/particle sensor for electron (XEP-e) of the ERG satellite

Abstract:

It is well known that satellites are always in danger in space and especially high-energy radiation damages them. One of the sources that cause them is the radiation belt (the Van Allen belt). It was thought to be static, but in the 1990s it rediscovered the radiation belt fluctuates greatly. There are some reasons to occur this phenomenon, but we have not understood a clear reason of this yet. On the other hand, it is well known that the energetic particle flux vary during geomagnetic disturbances and the relativistic electrons in the other radiation belt change with solar wind speed.

Now we are trying to develop the satellite (ERG) to reveal this mechanism. ERG (Energization and Radiation in Geospace) satellite is the small space science platform for rapid investigation and test satellite of JAXA/ISAS. This satellite will be lanched in 2016. Our group is developing the instrument (the XEP-e) to measure high-energy electrons (400keV~20MeV), that is one of many ERG satellite instruments. The XEP-e (eXtremely high Energy Plasma/ particle sensor for electron) is consists of the 5 SSDs (Solid-State Silicon Detectors) and a GSO single crystal scintillator. It has one-way conic sight and an electric part is unified with a part of sensor that is covered with aluminum to protect from contaminationand and an anti-scintillator to detect it. The front part of the SSDs discriminate a radiation enters into the sensor and the back part of the plastic scintillator get the value of its energy. We can get the data of high-energy electron by using this sensor and it will be useful to reveal the detail of the radiation belt’s fluctuation.