Study of Galactic Cosmic-Ray Flux Modulation by Interplanetary Plasma Structures for the Evaluation of Space Instrument Performance and Space Weather Science Investigations

Catia Grimani,Simone Benella,Michele Fabi,Mattia Villani,Daniele Telloni,Andrea Cesarini

doi:10.3390/atmos10120749

Abstract

The role of high-energy particles in limiting the performance of on-board instruments was studied for the European Space Agency (ESA) Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder (LPF) and ESA/National Astronautics and Space Administration Solar Orbiter missions. Particle detectors (PD) placed on board the LPF spacecraft allowed for testing the reliability of pre-launch predictions of galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) energy spectra and for studying the modulation of proton and helium overall flux above 70 MeV n − 1 on a day-by-day basis. GCR flux variations up to approximately 15% in less than a month were observed with LPF orbiting around the Lagrange point L1 between 2016 and 2017. These variations appeared barely detected or undetected in neutron monitors. In this work the LPF data and contemporaneous observations carried out with the magnetic spectrometer AMS-02 experiment are considered to show the effects of GCR flux short-term variations with respect to monthly averaged measurements. Moreover, it is shown that subsequent large-scale interplanetary structures cause a continuous modulation of GCR fluxes. As a result, small Forbush decreases cannot be considered good proxies for the transit of interplanetary coronal mass ejections and for geomagnetic storm forecasting.

Highlights

The European Space Agency (ESA) precursor mission of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), LISA Pathfinder (LPF) [1,2,3,4], was aimed to test the performance of the instruments that will be placed on board LISA for low-frequency gravitational wave detection in space [5]
The LPF observations [12,13] are used here to study the role of galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) short-term variations with respect to proton differential flux measurements averaged during different Bartels rotation (BR), i.e., 27-day Sun periods since 1832 February 8
A particle detector (PD) was placed on board LPF to monitor the overall flux of particles above 70 MeV n−1 incident on the S/C

Summary

Introduction

The European Space Agency (ESA) precursor mission of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), LISA Pathfinder (LPF) [1,2,3,4], was aimed to test the performance of the instruments that will be placed on board LISA for low-frequency gravitational wave detection in space [5]. A shielding copper box of 6.4 mm thickness surrounded the silicon layers by stopping particles with energies

LPF and METIS Pre-launch Environmental Studies

GCR Flux Long and Short-Term Variations Observed with LPF

Weak FDs Observed in Space and Geomagnetic Storm Forecasting

Conclusions

Findings

Results