ISSN 00380946, Solar System Research, 2012, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 160–169. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2012.
Original Russian Text © O.V. Dudnik, P. Podgorski, J. Sylwester, S. Gburek, M. Kowalinski, M. Siarkowski, S. Plocieniak, J. Bakala, 2012, published in Astronomicheskii Vestnik, 2012,
Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 173–183.
160
INTRODUCTION
The scientific instruments on board the spacecraft,
which were specifically designed to study various phe
nomena and objects, can be based on similar or related
sensor structures. Such sensors can respond not only
to the targeted type of radiation, but also to other,
unexpected types that can be a hindrance to the chosen
area of research. Thus, the ABC apparatus, designed to
study the characteristics of the fluxes of hard X rays and
gamma rays from solar flares and installed aboard the
loworbiting spacecraft CORONASF (Glyanenko
et al., 2009), accumulated a large amount of informa
tion about changing count rates in lowenergy and
highenergy γbands of extrasolar origin. The distribu
tion of count rates, in geographic coordinates of the
Earth, clearly showed the area of the polar caps, radi
ation belts (RBs), and the Brazilian Magnetic Anom
aly (BMA) (Arkhangelskaja et al., 2008). With this
apparatus, burst events and quasistationary equato
rial eruptions of different types were also observed.
The Xray SphinX spectrophotometer was
designed and manufactured at the Solar Physics Divi
sion of the Space Research Center of the Polish Acad
emy of Sciences as a part of the Foton scientific equip
ment of the CORONASPHOTON spacecraft (Kotov,
2011). It was designed to study the spectra of solar
Xrays in the energy range 1.2–15 keV. The primary
data processing showed that the count rates of sensor
units in high energy channels are different from zero even
during spacecraft nights. The count rate increased
sharply with the passage of regions of the BMA and RBs
by the satellite, suggesting a possible recording of high
energy particles by the spectrophotometer.
The sensor unit STEPFD of the electron and pro
ton satellite telescope STEPF, whose main objective
was to study the dynamics of fluxes of highenergy
charged particles, was located in close proximity to the
SphinX spectrophotometer. Thus, there was an oppor
tunity to conduct a joint analysis of data from the par
ticle detection channels of the SphinX spectropho
tometer and STEPF telescope channels for recording
electrons, protons, and secondary gamma radiation.
The analysis of data with a 30second time resolution
was performed for the observation period from May 1
to May 14, 2009.
XRAY SphinX SPECTROPHOTOMETER
AND SATELLITE TELESCOPE FOR
ENERGETIC PARTICLES STEPF
Four silicon PIN photodiodes served as solar Xray
sensors of the SphinX spectrometer (Sylwester et al.,
2008; Gburek et al., 2011a; 2011b). These detectors
XRay Spectrophotometer SphinX and Particle Spectrometer
STEPF of the Satellite Experiment CORONASPHOTON.
Preliminary Results of the Joint Data Analysis
O. V. Dudnik
a
, P. Podgorski
b
, J. Sylwester
b
, S. Gburek
b
, M. Kowalinski
b
,
M. Siarkowski
b
, S. Plocieniak
b
, and J. Bakala
b
a
Kharkiv National University named after V.N. Karazin, Ukraine
b
Space Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Solar Physics Division, Wroclaw, Poland
Received July 18, 2011
Abstract—A joint analysis is carried out of data obtained with the help of the solar Xray SphinX spectropho
tometer and the electron and proton satellite telescope STEPF in May 2009 in the course of the scientific
space experiment CORONASPHOTON. In order to determine the energies and particle types, in the anal
ysis of spectrophotometer records data are used on the intensities of electrons, protons, and secondary γradi
ation, obtained by the STEPF telescope, which was located in close proximity to the SphinX spectropho
tometer. The identical reaction of both instruments is noted at the intersection of regions of the Brazilian
magnetic anomaly and the Earth’s radiation belts. It is shown that large area photodiodes, serving as sensors
of the Xray spectrometer, reliably record electron fluxes of low and intermediate energies, as well as fluxes of
the secondary gamma radiation from construction materials of detector modules, the TESIS instrument
complex, and the spacecraft itself. The dynamics of electron fluxes, recorded by the SphinX spectrophotom
eter in the vicinity of a weak geomagnetic storm, supplements the information about the processes of radial
diffusion of electrons, which was studied using the STEPF telescope.
DOI: 10.1134/S0038094612020025