Abstract

ABSTRACT

Space weather forecasting aims at predicting the impacts of the Sun, interplanetary space, and the planetary environment on biological and technological systems. To monitor space weather, the European Space Agency is developing the Vigil mission. Vigil will carry the Plasma Analyser (PLA) instrument. We investigate the expected impact of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) on PLA. We analyse previous measurements from Solar Orbiter’s Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) Electron Analyser System (EAS) that, like PLA, uses a microchannel plate (MCP) as its detector. Using a fitting algorithm, we extract the number of erroneous counts created by the interaction between SEPs and the MCP. Using SEP flux measurements from Solar Orbiter’s Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) and multilinear regression, we establish a linear relationship between the number of erroneous counts and SEP fluxes. We define an SEP index, characterizing the impact of SEP events on EAS measurements. We then simulate PLA measurements during SEP events characterized by their SEP index. We show that moderate SEP events cause significant discrepancies in PLA plasma moment estimations under common solar-wind conditions. Based on our results, we propose a correction method for erroneous counts created by SEPs in instruments such as EAS and PLA.

Details

Title
Microchannel plate response to solar energetic particles and consequences for solar-wind measurements on ESA’s Vigil mission
Author
P-Y Parent 1 ; Verscharen, D 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Nicolaou, G 2 ; Owen, C J 2 

 Département de Physique de l'École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris , Palaiseau 91120 , France 
 Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London , Dorking RH5 6NT , UK 
Pages
844-852
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Jan 2024
Publisher
Oxford University Press
e-ISSN
27528200
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3191365364
Copyright
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.