Quiet time observations of equatorially trapped megaelectronvolt radiation belt ions with nuclear charge z> or =4
The equatorial satellite Explorer 45 was equipped with a heavy ion solid state ion detector system in which four of the detector channels were sensitive to heavy ions like oxygen ions but not to protons or helium ions. Of these, only the lowest energy passband covering 1.82-4.8MeV per ion for oxygen showed sufficiently high count rates to give meaningful statistics in a single satellite pass through the radiation belts. All measurements were carried out close to the equatorial plane, 1< or =B/B/sub o/< or approx. =1.4 at L shells below the spacecraft apogee of 5.24 R/sub E/, and the scope of this report is restricted to geomagnetically quiescent conditions during the period June 1-15, 1972. Fluxes of these ions are interpreted as oxygen ions and are found to maximize in the L shell range 3-3.5 with a peak equatorially mirroring flux of 0.38 ions/cm/sup 2/ s sr keV. This peak is not as sharply confined in L shell as the one previously reported for helium ions.
- Research Organization:
- Space Environment Laboratory, NOAA/ERL, Boulder, Colorado 80302
- OSTI ID:
- 6580995
- Journal Information:
- J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Geophys. Res.; (United States) Vol. 83:A9; ISSN JGREA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
CHARGED PARTICLES
DETECTION
ENERGY RANGE
EQUATOR
EXPLORER SATELLITES
ION DETECTION
IONS
MEV RANGE
OXYGEN IONS
RADIATION BELTS
RADIATION DETECTION
SATELLITES