SH056-04
The Solar Neutron TRACking (SONTRAC) Instrument

Thursday, 17 December 2020: 05:55
Virtual
Georgia Adair de Nolfo1, Alessandro Bruno1, Jeff Dumonthier1, Jason Legere2, Iker Liceaga-Indart3, Richard Messner Dr.4, J. Grant Mitchell1, George Suarez5, James M Ryan6 and Teresa Tatoli7, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Space Science Center, Durham, NH, United States, (3)2Catholic University, Washington D.C., United States, (4)4ECE Department,College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, United States, (5)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (7)University of Maryland Baltimore County, Catonsville, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Fast neutrons (energies >0.5 MeV) contribute to the total radiation exposure of space hardware and astronaut crew. They constitute a probe that enables a greater understanding of planetary atmospheric and surface compositions, and of particle acceleration in solar flares. However, neutrons are challenging to detect and measurements of them typically suffer from high background levels. High energy neutrons (>50 MeV) pose even more challenges, given the limitations of time-of-flight measurements employed by the traditional double-scatter technique resulting from size constraints on satellites, particularly newer small satellites. The SOlar Neutron TRACking instrument (SONTRAC) is a small satellite neutron detector that utilizes fine-grained scintillating fiber bundles with 1-mm pitch readout by arrays of 1-mm silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) of similar pitch. Signal processing is accomplished with multichannel ASICs. SONTRAC is able to image fast (between 20-200 MeV) neutron scatters in a compact scalable package. We discuss below the numerous applications of this technology and recent progress on the development and performance characteristics of a prototype instrument.
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