Trapped proton fluxes at low Earth orbits measured by the PAMELA experiment

Abstract

We report an accurate measurement of the geomagnetically trapped proton fluxes for kinetic energy above > 70 MeV performed by the PAMELA mission at low Earth orbits (350-610 km). Data were analyzed in the frame of the adiabatic theory of charged particle motion in the geomagnetic field. Flux properties were investigated in detail, providing a full characterization of the particle radiation in the South Atlantic Anomaly region, including locations, energy spectra and pitch angle distributions. PAMELA results significantly improve the description of the Earth's radiation environment at low altitudes placing important constraints on the trapping and interaction processes, and can be used to validate current trapped particle radiation models.

arXiv comment22 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (1)

• PAMELA Measurements of Cosmic-ray Proton and Helium Spectra

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• PAMELA's measurements of geomagnetic cutoff variations during the 14 December 2006 storm
• Modeling of proton-induced radioactivation background in hard X-ray telescopes: Geant4-based simulation and its demonstration by Hitomi's measurement in a low Earth orbit
• Geomagnetically trapped, albedo and solar energetic particles: trajectory analysis and flux reconstruction with PAMELA
• Solar-Cycle Variations of South-Atlantic Anomaly Proton Intensities Measured With The PAMELA Mission
• Back-Tracing and Flux Reconstruction for Solar Events with PAMELA
• Monte Carlo Simulation of CRAND Protons Trapped at Low Earth Orbits