Element Composition of High Energy Solar Particles

这项提议寻求提供资金，以加强冰顶(与在南极站建造的冰立方中微子观测站相辅相成的表面探测器阵列)确定能量范围为1-10 GeV的太阳高能粒子元素组成的能力。为此，将回收前南极中子监测器的部件，以建造一套新的增强型探测器，其响应函数(主要由强子引起)对能量和元素组成的依赖程度与冰顶探测器不同--主要由光子和轻子引起。拟议项目将增进对太阳高能粒子加速和输运的了解，其具体研究重点领域如下：(A)部署一台对能量超过1GeV的与耀斑有关的粒子事件中质子和氦核相对丰度具有独特敏感性的仪器；(B)确定预计在该项目至2014年期间将发生的大约10个基层增强事件的氦丰度；(C)将这种信息纳入关于较低能量太阳高能粒子的数据和对这些耀斑的其他观测(光学、无线电、X射线等)。该项目将提供与空间气象研究等重要社会问题有关的数据，并加强来自其他工具的数据的实用性。

This proposal seeks funding to enhance the capability of IceTop (a surface array of detectors complementing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory built at the South Pole Station) to determine element composition of solar energetic particles in the energy range 1-10 GeV. This will be accomplished by recycling components of the former South Pole neutron monitor to construct an enhanced suite of new detectors whose response functions (primarily due to hadrons) have a different dependence on energy and element composition from those of the IceTop detectors - primarily due to photons and leptons. The proposed project will advance understanding of the acceleration and transport of solar energetic particles with the specific focus areas of the research in the following: (a) deploying an instrument with unique sensitivity to the relative abundance of protons and helium nuclei in solar flare-related particle events at energies above 1 GeV; (b) determining helium abundance for about ten Ground Level Enhancements (GLE) events expected to occur during the project's lifetime through 2014; and (c) putting this information into the context of data on solar energetic particles at lower energy and other observations (optical, radio, X-ray, etc) of these flares. The project will provide data relevant to important societal issues such as space weather studies and enhance the usefulness of data from other instruments.