The Medium-Energy Particle Analyzer (MEPA) on the AMPTE CCE Spacecraft

Abstract

The medium-energy particle analyzer (MEPA) was designed to measure the spectra and composition of magnetospheric particle populations from 10 keV per nucleon (for oxygen) to more than 6 MeV The instrument provides for high background rejection and a geometry tactor large enougn (10-2 cm2 * sr) to be sensitive to rare natural species and tracer ions beyond geosynchronous orbit, while having the ability to operate without saturation in the very high flux regions of the inner magnetosphere. The MEPA telescope measures time of flight and thus velocity of energetic ions from a thin front foil to a rear solid-state total-energy detector, determining the incident ion mass. The telescope is capable of isotopic resolution of hydrogen and helium, of elemental resolution up through oxygen, and can resolve major species and groups to beyond iron with 32-sector angular resolution and temporal resolution of 0.2-24 s. MEPA represents a new and extremely promising technology for space-particle instrumentation in that it has the capability of measuring low-energy heavy ions with high efficiency while discriminating against high natural fluxes of protons.