California Institute of Technology
The Solar, Anomalous, Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX)
SAMPEX, the first of NASA's new Small Explorer (SMEX) series, was launched July 3, 1992 into an 82 deg inclination orbit carrying four instruments designed to measure energetic nuclei and electrons over a broad dynamic range. SAMPEX is designed to study energetic particles of solar, interplanetary, and magnetospheric origin, as well as "anomalous" cosmic rays, thought to be accelerated at the solar wind termination shock, and cosmic rays from Galactic sources. While over the geomagnetic poles SAMPEX can measure the interplanetary flux of energetic particles; at lower latitudes it surveys magnetospheric particles over all local times twice a day. The instruments on SAMPEX include:
- LICA: A Low-Energy Ion Analyzer, built by the University of Maryland, that is designed to measure the elemental and isotopic composition of nuclei from He to Ni (Z = 2 to 28) over the energy range from ~0.5 to ~5 MeV/nuc. The LEICA geometry factor is ~0.6 cm2sr. Contact: G. Mason, UMd.
- HILT: A Heavy Ion Large Telescope, built by the Max-Planck Institute fur Extraterrestrische Physik and the Aerospace Corporation, that is designed to measure the elemental composition of nuclei from He to Ni (Z = 2 to 28) in the energy range from ~4 to 250 MeV/nuc. HILT has a geometry factor of ~60 cm2sr. Contact Berndt Klecker, MPE.
- MAST: A Mass Spectrometer Telescope, built by Caltech and GSFC, that is designed to measure the elemental and isotopic composition of nuclei from He to Ni (Z = 2 to 28) over the energy range from ~15 to 200 MeV/nuc. The MAST geometry factor ranges from ~8 to ~14 cm2sr, depending on energy. Contact: Richard Mewaldt or Rick Leske, Caltech.
- PET: A Proton-Electron Telescope, built by Caltech and GSFC, that is designed to measure the energy spectra of electrons from ~0.5 to 30 MeV, and of H and He from ~ 20 to 200 MeV/nuc. Typical geometry factors for PET are ~1 cm2sr. Contact: Richard Mewaldt or Rick Leske, Caltech.
The SAMPEX Data Center at Caltech now serves a
comprehensive archive of SAMPEX data and documentation to the community.
For further information on the SAMPEX instruments and spacecraft see the May 1993 issue (Volume 31, No. 2) of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing or MAST paper here and PET paper here.
SAMPEX Investigators and Institutions
University of Maryland
- Glenn Mason, Principal Investigator
- Doug Hamilton
- Shri Kanekal
California Institute of Technology
Max-Plank-Institute fur Extraterrestrische Physik
- Dieter Hovestadt
- Berndt Klecker
- Manfred Scholer
Goddard Space Flight Center
University of Colorado
Aerospace Corporation
- Bern Blake
- Richard Selesnick
- Joe Mazur
Langley
Among the more interesting studies carried out by SAMPEX are of a newly-discovered belt composed of trapped heavy nuclei that originate from the interstellar medium (for more information see Geophysical Research Letters 20, 2003, 1993, EOS 75, No.6, p.185, 1994 and JGR 100,9503, 1995).
An image can be found here RadBelt Image
Here is a list of publications from the MAST and PET instrument data.