Element Composition of High Energy Solar Particles

该提案寻求资金来增强IceTop（在南极站建立的冰立方中微子观测站的一个表面探测器阵列）的能力，以确定能量范围为1-10 GeV的太阳高能粒子的元素组成。这将通过回收原南极中子监测器的组件来完成，以构建一套增强的新探测器，其响应功能（主要是由于强子）对能量和元素组成的依赖不同于IceTop探测器，主要是由于光子和轻子。该项目将促进对太阳高能粒子加速和输运的理解，具体研究重点如下：(a)部署一种对能量大于1 GeV的太阳耀斑相关粒子事件中质子和氦核相对丰度具有独特灵敏度的仪器；(b)确定在项目生命周期至2014年期间预计发生的约10次地面增强（GLE）事件的氦丰度；(c)将这些信息与低能太阳高能粒子的数据以及对这些耀斑的其他观测（光学、无线电、x射线等）结合起来。该项目将提供与空间天气研究等重要社会问题有关的数据，并提高其他仪器数据的有用性。

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.