This article reports nine solar energetic particle (SEP) events detected by the New Instrument for Nuclear Analysis (NINA) between 1998 October and 1999 April. NINA is a silicon-based particle detector mounted on board the Russian satellite Resurs-01-4, which has own at an altitude of about 800 km in polar inclination since 1998 July. For every solar event, the power-law 4 He spectrum across the energy interval 10-50 MeV nucleon(-1) was reconstructed and spectral indexes, gamma, from 1.8 to 6.8 extracted. Data of He-3 and He-4 were used to determine the He-3/He-4 ratio, which for some SEP events indicated an enrichment in He-3. For the 1998 November 7 event, the ratio reached a maximum value of 0.33 +/- 0.06, with spectral indexes gamma = 2.5 +/- 0.6 and gamma = 3.7 +/- 0.3 for He-3 and He-4, respectively. The He-3/He-4 ratio averaged over the remaining events was 0.011 +/- 0.004. For all events, a deuterium-to-proton ratio was estimated. An upper limit on the average value over all events was H-2/H-1 < 4 x 10(-5) across the energy interval 9-12 MeV nucleon(-1). Upper limits on the H-3/H-1 counting ratio for all events were determined. For the 1998 November 14 SEP event, the high flux of heavy particles detected made it possible to reconstruct the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen flux.

Light isotope abundances in solar energetic particles measured by the space instrument NINA

VACCHI, Andrea
2002-01-01

Abstract

This article reports nine solar energetic particle (SEP) events detected by the New Instrument for Nuclear Analysis (NINA) between 1998 October and 1999 April. NINA is a silicon-based particle detector mounted on board the Russian satellite Resurs-01-4, which has own at an altitude of about 800 km in polar inclination since 1998 July. For every solar event, the power-law 4 He spectrum across the energy interval 10-50 MeV nucleon(-1) was reconstructed and spectral indexes, gamma, from 1.8 to 6.8 extracted. Data of He-3 and He-4 were used to determine the He-3/He-4 ratio, which for some SEP events indicated an enrichment in He-3. For the 1998 November 7 event, the ratio reached a maximum value of 0.33 +/- 0.06, with spectral indexes gamma = 2.5 +/- 0.6 and gamma = 3.7 +/- 0.3 for He-3 and He-4, respectively. The He-3/He-4 ratio averaged over the remaining events was 0.011 +/- 0.004. For all events, a deuterium-to-proton ratio was estimated. An upper limit on the average value over all events was H-2/H-1 < 4 x 10(-5) across the energy interval 9-12 MeV nucleon(-1). Upper limits on the H-3/H-1 counting ratio for all events were determined. For the 1998 November 14 SEP event, the high flux of heavy particles detected made it possible to reconstruct the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen flux.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/1125279
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