Obtaining Quantitative Relativistic Electron Fluxes From LANL GEO's ESP Instrument for use in Superposed Epoch Studies of Magnetospheric Storms

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2720 Energetic Particles: Trapped, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2774 Radiation Belts, 2794 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

Quantitative relativistic electron data are necessary for determining phase space gradients as part of superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric storms. The Energetic Spectrometer for Particles (ESP) instrument aboard Los Alamos geosynchronous satellites (LANL GEO) has been delivering relativistic electron data at geosynchronous orbit for over a decade. There are two instruments aboard each spacecraft, and typically the data are averaged before release. A comparison of the data from the two instruments reveals significant differences in gain, resulting in large differences in inferred relativistic electron flux. This could potentially cause errors in gradients calculated from comparison of fluxes from multiple satellites/instruments. This paper presents our successful attempts to calibrate the gains of the ESP instruments aboard LANL GEO satellites 1989-046 through LANL-02A using in-flight data. The gain is tabulated for each month since January 1996. The ESP has eight channels (PHA8-15), nominally dedicated to medium-energy protons (10-100 MeV), which are dominated by cosmic ray interactions except during the most intense solar proton events. We calibrate the gain by scaling Monte Carlo calculations of the instrument response to cosmic ray spectra that vary with the phase of the solar cycle [Usoskin et al, JGR, v. 110, A12108, 2005]. The results are validated by comparing inferred electron fluxes from the two instruments aboard a single spacecraft, and by comparing fluxes inferred from ESP to the fluxes inferred from other spacecraft using `conjunctions' between the spacecraft [Friedel et al, Space Weather, Vol. 3, No. 9, 2005]. The relativistic electron fluxes based on these calibrations will allow quantitative determination of phase space densities and gradients during superposed epoch studies of magnetospheric storms.

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