First measurements of the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) on board Solar Orbiter

Abstract:

Past February 10th at 05.03h CET Solar Orbiter took off from Cape Canaveral thus beginning the journey to its encounter with the Sun. Solar Orbiter carries ten scientific instruments, six remote sensing and four in situ, that will allow the mission main goal: how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere. Among the in situ instruments, the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) will measure electrons, protons and heavy ions with high temporal resolution over a wide energy range, from suprathermal energies up to several hundreds of MeV/nucleon. For this purpose, EPD is composed of four units, STEP, SIS, EPT and HET plus the Instrument Control Unit (ICU). In this presentation, we will show the first measurements performed by EPD since the end of the commissioning phase until the latest results obtained. During these months EPD has been scanning the inner heliosphere at different heliocentric distances and heliolongitues allowing a map of the particle population in the inner heliosphere during solar minimum conditions.