SM030-05
ACE Measures Record-Breaking Cosmic Ray Intensities in 2020

Friday, 11 December 2020: 17:46
Virtual
Richard Mewaldt1, W. Robert Binns2, Mark E Wiedenbeck3, Edward C Stone1, Eric R Christian4, Tycho T von Rosenvinge5, Georgia Adair de Nolfo6, Richard A Leske7 and Allan Wayne Labrador8, (1)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Washington University in St. Louis, Physics, St. Louis, MO, United States, (3)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (7)CALTECH, Pasadena, CA, United States, (8)Mail Code 290-17, Pasadena, CA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
The Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) on ACE has been measuring the elemental and isotopic composition of Elements from He to Ni since it was launched in 1997. The CRIS energy range extends from ~100 to ~400 MeV/nuc. The Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS extends the coverage down to ~10 MeV/nuc. During 2009-2010 ACE measured the highest intensities of the space era for elements for the elements C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe at energies of ~200 MeV/nuc, near the peak in the modulated spectrum at 1 AU. We attributed this mainly to the fact that the interplanetary magnetic field also reached a minimum at this time. In this presentation we report measurements of these same elements made during the summer of 2020. For the latest 81-day period the average intensity of these six elements was higher than in 2009, and the intensities are presently increasing. We will report on the latest data and relate these to the solar and interplanetary conditions in the two periods. This trend is consistent with various evidence that we are moving toward a period of lower solar acivity.
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