BackForwardInstrument:  SPM 

Instrument details
Acronym SPM
Full name Solar Proton Monitor
Purpose Monitoring of solar protons hiting the platform
Short description Three solid state detectors monitoring the omnidirectional fluxes of solar protons in the energy ranges 0.27-3.2 MeV, 3.2-60 Mev and > 60 MeV; and alpha-particles in the range 12.5-32 MeV; and electrons of energy > 140 keV
Background New development
Scanning Technique N/A (in-situ measurement in the platform environment)
Resolution N/A
Coverage / Cycle N/A
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency NOAA
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 1970 to 1979
Last update: 2017-06-04
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Solar and space environment monitors
  • Energetic particle spectrometer
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • In-situ plasma probes, and energetic particle spectrometers and magnetometers at GEO and LEO, and magnetic field at GEO
  • Proton sensor at LEO
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Alpha particles integral directional flux
  • Electron integral directional flux
  • Proton integral directional flux
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Electron integral directional flux*5 - marginalNo specific limitation.Platform environment, medium and high energy (over 40 to over 400 keV)
Proton integral directional flux*5 - marginalNo specific limitation.Platform environment, medium and high energy (over 40 to over 1000 keV)
Alpha particles integral directional flux*5 - marginalNo specific limitation.Platform environment. Low-medium energy range (<10 up to 100 MeV/n)