Multilayer Scintillation Detector for Nuclear Physics Monitoring of Space Weather

Abstract

The physical characteristics of the multilayer scintillation spectrometer (MSS) for identification and energy measurement of cosmic electrons, positrons and nuclei are considered in this paper. This spectrometer is made on the basis of several plastic scintillator plates with various thick viewed by photomultipliers. Two upper layers are strips of orthogonal scintillators. The nuclei energy measurement range is 3 – 100 MeV/nucleon. Spectrometer is planning for space weather monitoring and investigation of solar-magnetospheric and geophysics effects on satellite. MSS time resolution is about 1 microsecond and it can measure the time profiles of fast processes in the Earth's magnetosphere. Spectrometer experimental characteristics were estimated by means of computer simulation. The ionization loss fluctuations, ion charge exchange during pass through detector and, especially, scintillation quenching effect (Bircs effect) were taken into account in calculations.Multilayer structure of spectrometer allows:1)Ions mass identification for hydrogen and helium isotopes2)Ions charge identification without mass identification for nuclei from lithium to oxygenThe evaluation of the energy distribution of the nuclei may be obtained as from the analogous information from detectors of the spectrometer and from the estimation of experimental distribution of nuclei ranges in detectors material, based on the results of identification.