Published March 2015 | Version v1
Journal article

Full simulation of the LUCID experiment in the Low Earth Orbit radiation environment

  • 1. Langton Star Centre, Langton Lane, Canterbury, CT4 7AS (United Kingdom)

Description

The Langton Ultimate Cosmic ray Intensity Detector (LUCID) experiment is a satellite-based device that uses five Timepix hybrid silicon pixel detectors to make measurements of the radiation environment at an altitude of approximately 630 km, i.e. in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) . The experiment launched aboard Surrey Satellite Technology Limited's (SSTL's) TechDemoSat-1 on Tuesday the 8th of July 2014. The Timepix detectors, developed by the Medipix2 Collaboration, are arranged to form the five sides of a cube enclosed by a 0.7 mm thick aluminium covering, and are operated in Time-over-Threshold (ToT) mode to allow the flux, energy and directionality of incident ionising radiation to be measured. To understand the expected detector performance with respect to these measurements, the LUCID experiment has been modelled using the Allpix software package, a generic simulation toolkit for silicon pixel detectors built upon the GEANT4 framework. The work presented here summarises studies completed using the GridPP Collaboration's computing grid infrastructure to perform the simulations, store the resultant datasets, and share that data with the LUCID Collaboration. The analysis of these datasets has given an indication of the expected performance in differing space radiation environments (for example, during passes of the polar regions or the South Atlantic Anomaly), and has allowed the LUCID Collaboration to prepare for when data is transmitted back to Earth in late 2014

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/10/03/C03043

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Instrumentation
Journal Volume
10
Journal Issue
03
Journal Page Range
p. C03043
ISSN
1748-0221

INIS

Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
47068789
Subject category
S46: INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; S97: MATHEMATICAL METHODS AND COMPUTING;
Descriptors DEI
ALUMINIUM; COSMIC RAY DETECTION; DATASETS; EVALUATION; SATELLITES; SILICON; SIMULATION
Descriptors DEC
DETECTION; DOCUMENT TYPES; ELEMENTS; METALS; RADIATION DETECTION; SEMIMETALS