Instruments

Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite (ECT)

RBSP-ECT will directly measure near-Earth space radiation particles to understand the physical processes that control the acceleration, global distribution, and variability of radiation belt electrons and ions.

RBSP-ECT Science Investigation Objectives:

• Determine the physical processes that produce radiation belt enhancements
• Determine the dominant mechanisms for relativistic electron loss
• Determine how the inner magnetospheric plasma environment controls radiation belt acceleration and loss
• Develop empirical and physical models for understanding and predicting radiation belt space weather effects

RBSP-ECT Instrument Suite:

ECT’s three highly-coordinated instruments (MagEIS, HOPE, and REPT) cover comprehensively the full electron and ion spectra from one eV to 10’s of MeV with sufficient energy resolution, pitch angle coverage and resolution, and with composition measurements in the critical energy range up to 50 keV and also from a few to 50 MeV/nucleon. All three instruments are based on measurement techniques proven in the radiation belts, optimized to provide unambiguous separation of ions and electrons and clean energy responses even in the presence of extreme penetrating background environments.

The ECT suite is integrated economically with a common DPU to provide maximum science return using a minimum of mission resources.

Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer MagEIS uses magnetic focusing and pulse height analysis to provide the cleanest possible energetic electron measurements over the critical energy range of 20 keV to 4 MeV, total ions from 15 keV to ~1 MeV (no mass discrimination), and ion composition from ~1-50 MeV/nucleon.

Helium Oxygen Proton Electron
HOPE uses an electrostatic top-hat analyzer and time-gated coincidence detectors to measure electrons, protons, and helium and oxygen ions with energies from 1 eV to 50 keV while rejecting penetrating backgrounds.

Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope REPT covers the challenging electron (proton) energy range > ~2 (~8) MeV to capture most intense events using designs adapted from SAMPEX.

For more information, go to the ECT web site.