Neutrons and energetic charged particles in the inner heliosphere: Measurements of the MESSENGER Neutron Spectrometer from 0.3 to 0.85 AU

Abstract

AbstractEnergetic charged particle and neutron data from the Neutron Spectrometer (NS) on board the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft have been acquired for solar distances ranging from 0.3 to 0.85 AU. The NS is sensitive to ions with energies greater than 120 MeV/nucleon and has made the first measurements of these energetic ions in the inner heliosphere since the mid‐1970s. The high‐energy ion measurements are well correlated with Earth‐based neutron monitor measurements, which themselves provide a measure of the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). These measurements provide an explicit demonstration of the expected GCR solar modulation for solar distances to 0.3 AU. These NS data also represent the first interplanetary neutron measurements in the inner heliosphere. The time variability of the neutron measurements are driven by two primary effects: time variable production of neutrons from GCRs interacting with local spacecraft material and small count rate changes due to temperature‐driven gain changes in the NS instrument. When these time‐dependent variations are removed from the neutron measurements, there is no statistically significant variation of neutron count rates versus solar distance. These data are used to derive an upper limit on solar neutron production of 1024 neutrons[0.5 < E < 9 MeV] sr−1 s−1 during quiescent periods.