Abstract Details

Name: Shiv Kumar Goyal
Affiliation: Scientist/Engineer-SD
Conference ID: ASI2017_1261
Title : Supra Thermal & Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) - subsystem of ASPEX payload, onboard Aditya-L1 mission
Authors and Co-Authors : S. K. Goyal (PRL, Ahmedabad), A. R. Patel (PRL, Ahmedabad), Neeraj K. Tiwari (PRL, Ahmedabad), M. Shanmugam (PRL, Ahmedabad), T. Ladiya (PRL, Ahmedabad), Mithun N. P. S. (PRL, Ahmedabad), S. V. Vadawale (PRL, Ahmedabad), P. Janardhan (PRL, Ahmedabad), D. Chakrabarty (PRL, Ahmedabad), A. Sarkar (PRL, Ahmedabad), Hitesh L. Adalja (PRL, Ahmedabad), A. K. Hait (SAC, Ahmedabad), R. Bhavsar (SAC, Ahmedabad), M. Chauhan (SAC, Ahmedabad), S. B. Banerjee (PRL, Ahmedabad), P. Kumar (PRL, Ahmedabad), K. P. Subramanian (PRL, Ahmedabad), B. Bapat (IISER, Pune), P. R. Adhyaru (PRL, Ahmedabad), and M. B. Dadhania (PRL, Ahmedabad)
Abstract Type : Oral
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : Supra Thermal Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) is an independent subsystem of the ASPEX experiment. ASPEX (Aditya Solar Wind Particle EXperiment) has been selected as one of the possible experiments onboard the Aditya - L1 mission (forthcoming Indian solar mission), which is to be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point, lying between the Sun and the Earth at a distance of 1.5 million km from the Earth. Primary objective of the ASPEX experiment is to make in - situ, multi - directional measurements of solar wind supra-thermal and high energy particles. The ASPEX payload has two independent subsystems: SWIS (Solar Wind Ion Spectrometer), which will measure the angular and energy distributions of Solar wind ions in the energy range of 100 eV to 20 keV using the technique of electro-static analysis (ESA) followed by magnetic separation of particles, while STEPS - the another subsystem will measure the energy spectrum of high energetic particles from six multiple directions, in the energy range of 20 keV/n to 5 MeV/n. The STEPS instrument has been configured into three packages: viz. the STEPS - 1 detector package, the STEPS - 2 detector package and the processing electronics package. The STEPS - 1 detector package has 4 detector units, pointing in 4 different directions: SR (STEPS Radial - pointing towards Sun), SI (STEPS Intermediate - between Sun and Parker Spiral direction), SP (STEPS Parker) and SN (STEPS Northward). In this package: 2 detector units (SR & SP) will provide particle species differentiated (proton and alpha) energy spectra while other 2 detector units (SI & SN) will provide particle species integrated energy spectra. Similarly STEPS - 2 detector package has 2 detector units: SE (STEPS Earthward) and SS (STEPS Southward). SE detector unit will provide species differentiated energy spectra, while SS detector unit will provide species integrated energy spectra. The detector unit of STEPS measuring species differentiated energy spectra, will use custom designed dual window Si detector and plastic Scintillator. Dual window Si detectors are fabricated on a single package with two different thicknesses of dead layers (0.1 m and 1.0 m) of high Z material. The Plastic Scintillator (placed below the Si detector package) provides a possibility of identifying the particles up to very high energy (~40 MeV) using ΔE-E mode. The detector units of STEPS measuring species integrated spectra will use a standard Si-PIN detector. In this talk, overall configuration of the STEPS subsystem and its salient features will be discussed. Developmental status of the bread - board model with some preliminary results will also be presented.