GALILEO

GALILEO

The Heavy Ion Counter was added to the Galileo spacecraft to monitor the environment for energetic heavy ions with the potential to cause single event upsets in the spacecraft electronics. In addition to their engineering value, these observations are of course also of scientific interest. In particular, heavy ion spectra at Jupiter can be used to study composition, diffusion, and acceleration of these particles. Other scientific goals include observations of energetic particles associated with solar flare events, of cosmic rays, and of anomalous cosmic rays.