The high energy particle detector onboard the CSES satellite

Abstract

The China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) aims to contribute to the monitoring of earthquakes from space. This space mission will study electromagnetic phenomena and their correlation with the geophysical activity. The satellite will be launched in 2017 and will host several instruments onboard: two magnetometers, an electrical field detector, a plasma analyzer, a Langmiur probe and an High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD). The High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD), developed by the Italian Collaboration, detects electrons, protons and light nuclei. The main objective is to measure the increases of the electron and proton fluxes due to short-time perturbations of the radiation belts caused by solar and terrestrial phenomena. Before building the Flight Model of the instrument, three different models have been realized and tested in laboratory to assess the compliance of the HEPD characteristics and to verify the detector performances. The last model, identical to the Flight Model, has also been tested at the Beam Test Facility of Frascati with electron beams of energies comprised between 30 and 150 MeV. In this paper a description of the HEPD apparatus, its main characteristics and preliminary results of the calibration will be presented.