Conceptual Design of a Solid State Telescope for Small scale magNetospheric Ionospheric Plasma Experiments

Abstract

The present paper describes the design of a Solid State Telescope (SST) on board the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute satellite-1 (KASISat-1) consisting of four [TBD] nanosatellites. The SST will measure these radiation belt electrons from a low-Earth polar orbit satellite to study mechanisms related to the spatial resolution of electron precipitation, such as electron microbursts, and those related to the measurement of energy dispersion with a high temporal resolution in the sub-auroral regions. We performed a simulation to determine the sensor design of the SST using GEometry ANd Tracking 4 (GEANT4) simulations and the Bethe formula. The simulation was performed in the range of 100 ~ 400 keV considering that the electron, which is to be detected in the space environment. The SST is based on a silicon barrier detector and consists of two telescopes mounted on a satellite to observe the electrons moving along the geomagnetic field (pitch angle 0°) and the quasi-trapped electrons (pitch angle 90°) during observations. We determined the telescope design of the SST in view of previous measurements and the geometrical factor in the cylindrical geometry of Sullivan (1971). With a high spectral resolution of 16 channels over the 100 keV ~ 400 keV energy range, together with the pitch angle information, the designed SST will answer questions regarding the occurrence of microbursts and the interaction with energetic particles. The KASISat-1 is expected to be launched in the latter half of 2020.