Genesis Radiation Environment
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20070014073 2019-08-30T00:44:36+00:00Z 1 Source of Acquisition NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Genesis Radiation Environment Joseph I. Minow* NASA Marshull Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 USA Richard L. Altstatt' and William C. Skipworth* Jacobs Engineering, Marshall Space Flight Center Group, Huntsville, AL 35812 USA The Genesis spacecraft launched on 8 August 2001 sampled solar wind environments at L1 from 2001 to 2004. After the Science Capsule door was opened, numerous foils and samples were exposed to the various solar wind environments during periods including slow solar wind from the streamer belts, fast solar wind flows from coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections. The Survey and Examination of Eroded Returned Surfaces (SEERS) program led by NASA's Space Environments and Effects program had initiated access for the space materials community to the remaining Science Capsule hardware after the science samples had been removed for evaluation of materials exposure to the space environment. This presentation will describe the process used to generate a reference radiation Genesis Radiation Environment developed for the SEERS program for use by the materials science community in their analyses of the Genesis hardware. I. Introduction ASA's Space Environments and Effects (SEE) Program initiated the Surveying and Examination of Eroded N Returned Surfaces (SEERS) Initiative in 2003. The goal of the Initiative was to provide leadership in the engineering analysis of returned flight hardware by supporting a comprehensive effort to understand environmental effects due to solar W, ionizing radiation, plasmas, neutral contamination, meteoroids, and other conditions experienced during the mission (not primary science mission objectives). Initial efforts focused on coordinating the access by the materials engineering community to the remaining Genesis and Stardust hardware once the science materials were removed from the sample returned capsules. The Genesis spacecraft sampled solar wind environments at the Sun-Earth L1 point for a period of approximately three years before returning samples of solar wind materials in September 2004 [Wiens et al., 2002; Barraclough et al., 20041 and the Stardust spacecraft returned material from Comet P/Wild 2 and interstellar dust to Earth in January 2006. In support of the SEERS Initiative, the SEE Program funded development of a reference radiation environment for the Genesis spacecraft for use by materials 200 engineers in their evaluation of the space exposed materials. This paper describes the status of this radiation environment development. 11. Genesis Spacecraft and Plasma Data Genesis was launched on 8 August 2001 and inserted into a halo orbit about the Sun-Earth L1 point (Figure 1) on 16 November 2001 with sample collections obtained over an -200 884 day period from 3 December 2001 to 2 April 2004. 300 200 100 0 - 1Ow!OQ-300 Figure 2 shows the spacecraft with the solar arrays, the >G.,, me1 spacecraft bus with the Genesis Ion Monitor (GIM) and Figure 1. Genesis Orbit. Genesis trajectory Electron Monitor (GEM) plasma instruments and support &om Earth to L1 (black) and for 30 November hardware, and the deployed Science Capsule in solar wind 2001 to 1 April 2004 including the period the collection mode. The Science Capsule contains the solar Science Capsule was exposed to the solar wind wind collection materials and was designed to separate from (red). the spacecraft bus after the science mission was complete *AST, Flight Vehicle Space Environments, Spacecraft and Vehicle Systems Department, NASA/MSFC/EV13, Huntsville, AL,Senior Member AIAA 'Radiation Effects Engineer, Jacobs Engineering, MSFC Group, MSFCEV13, Huntsville, AL, *Currentposition: Senior Sohare Engineer, Ameri-Tech International, Inc., Harvest, AL. 1 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and return to Earth. The GEM and GIM plasma instruments [Barracloughet al., 2003; Neugebauer et al., 20031 were used to support the solar wind collection science by providing a real time monitor of solar wind conditions allowing the sample carriers to selectively collect material from coronal holes (fast >500 Msec solar wind), interstreams (slow <500 Msec solar wind), and coronal mass ejections. GIM is an electrostatic analyzer providing a complete set of ion flux measurements every 2.5 minutes over a 0.1 eV to 14 keV energy range and GEM is an electrostatic analyzer for measuring electron Figure 2. Genesis Spacecraft and Orbit. Artist flux over the range of energies from 0.001 to 1.4 keV. concept of the Genesis spacecraft (courtesy JPL) Both instruments provided angular information on ion showing the Science Capsule (SC), Genesis Ion and electron flux but this data was not available for the Monitor (GIM) and Electron Monitor (GEM) radiation study. The radiation environments described instruments. here are based only on reconstructed environments derived from the GGion moments (Figure 3) provided by the PI and the public access Genesis data web site (httu://genesis.lanl.gov/dots/index.html). Ion moments derived from the GIM measurements are shown in Figure 3 from the start of instrument operations in August 2001 through the end of April 2004 during the period the Science Capsule was exposed to the solar wind highlighted in yellow. The ion density shown in the top panel of Figure 3 includes both the proton (black symbols) and helium (blue symbols) components of the ion flow which accounts for most of the solar wind mass. The helium density was computed from the He'm ratio reported in the Genesis GIM moments and the proton density. Gaps in the data set occur during periods when the GIM instrument was powered off for station keeping maneuvers and solar proton events. All the moment values were interpolated across these data gaps onto an evenly spaced set of time values (red) The solar wind proton speed and temperatures are shown in the middle two panels. Corresponding helium parameters are not available in the moments so assumptions must be made to incorporate their effects into the reconstructed differential flux models. Observations of differential streaming velocities between solar wind protons and alpha particles have been reported with the alpha velocity exceeding the proton velocity by factors ranging from a few to 50 Ms or more [Yermolaev and Stupin, 1997; Reisenfeld et al., 20011 with the largest differential streaming velocities occurring during periods of high speed solar wind flows and small differential alpha-proton velocity at 1 AU for flows <400 to 500 km/s [Neugebauer et al., 19961. We have adopted a linear fit to alpha-proton differential streaming velocities (Figure 4) observed by instruments on the Helios [Marsch et al., 19821 and WIND [Steinberg et al., 19971 spacecraft to provide a method for deriving mean helium velocities from proton velocity moments available in the Genesis data set. The Marsh et al. [ 19821 values given in Figure 3 are the 0.95 AU alpha-proton streaming values extracted fiom Neugebauer et al. [1996] and assigned to the midpoint of the proton velocity bins. Steinberg et al. [ 19971 in contrast reports average alpha-proton streaming values of 6.Q9.1 MSfor Vp400 WS,2& 17 km/s for 400 kmh IVp -< 500 Ws,and 4 lk 19 km/s for Vp>500 km/s. In order to merge both data sets into the linear fit, we have computed the mean Genesis solar wind velocities V,, ws= 349 km Is and V,500ws = 605 km Is and assigned the corresponding Steinberg et al. [1997] alpha-proton differential streaming speeds of -6 km/s and -4 1 Ws,respectively, to these values with the 400-500 km/s differential streaming value assigned to a proton velocity of 450 kmls. The resulting linear fit for the differential velocity between alpha particles and protons is given by the equation AVHe-p = 0.104Vp -31.66 kmIS which is used in our model to provide the Genesis helium ion flow velocity. 2 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Lii 2001.5 2002.0 2002.5 2003.0 2003.5 2044.0 2044.5 Time (UT) Figure 3. Genesis Ion Moments and Ion Flux. GIM ion moments (ion density Ni, solar wind ion velocity VS, and proton temperature Tp) are shown in the top three panels with the ion flux derived fiom the moments in the bottom panel. The period the Science Capsule was open is highlighted in yellow. Original GIM records are shown black (protons) and blue (helium) with interpolated values in red. Helium to proton temperature ratios reported in the literature typically range in values from THJTH - 3 to THJTH - 6 depending on the nature of the solar wind flow regime. For example, Reisenfeld et ul. [2001] use data from Feldman et al., [1977] to obtain an average ratio of THJTH - 4.9h1.8 for all solar wind flows, THJTH - 6.2h1.3 for flows >650 km/s, and THJTH - 3.2rt0.9 for flows <350 km/s. Mursch et ul. [1982] report ratios of THJTH - 3.0 for >600 km/s solar wind flows and THJTH - 2.3 for solar wind flows <400 km/s. Yermoluev and Stupin [1997] categorize solar wind data fiom the Prognoz -7 spacecraft into five solar wind flow regimes and report helium to proton temperature ratios of THJTH - 2.7k3.0 for the heliospheric current sheet, THJTH - 423.6 for coronal streamers, THJTH - 4.4h3.0 for coronal holes, THJTH - 3.3h2.6 for shocked solar wind, and THJTH - 3.9h2.8 for coronal mass ejections. For the results presented in this paper, we will adopt the ratio THJTH - 4.0 independent of solar wind velocity. Proton (black) and helium (blue) flux is presented in the bottom panel and is plotted over the interpolated flux values (red) that are based on the solar wind ram flux (-Vsw*Ni). The flux exhibits nearly the same variability as the ion density due to the inverse relationship between solar wind velocity and density [Burluguand Ogilvie, 19701 and the relatively smaller variation in solar wind velocity.