Development of the Engineering Model of the Solar Neutron and Gamma-ray Spectrometer (SONGS)

Le résumé fourni par la source

We are developing the solar neutron and gamma-ray spectrometer (SONGS) with small size (10 cmx15 cmx15 cm), light weight ($\sim 3 \mathrm{~kg}$) and low power ($\sim 6 \mathrm{~W}$) for microsatellite to clarify particle acceleration mechanisms in the solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This detector consists of two parts. One is fast neutron detection part consisting of 16 plastic scintillator (3.95 mmx3.95 mmx64 mm for each) bars with 16 layers, and the other is gamma-ray detection part composed of $12 \mathrm{x} 12 \mathrm{GAGG}(\mathrm{Ce})$ scintillator array. Fast neutron in $30-120 \mathrm{MeV}$ can be detected via elastic scattering and incident energy can be determined assuming the Sun direction, while gamma-rays in 0.1-3 MeV can be detected via either photo-absorption or Compton scattering process in plastic scintilators. Both scintillators are read out individually by Hamamatsu silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs), and their 704 signals are processed by 45 IDEAS ASICs and 6 Xilinx FPGAs. In this geometry and configuration, we can track the particle trajectory in three dimensions. We also attached the low-power wide-area network (LPWA) antenna and transceiver to send an alert of occurence of giant solar flares to public people for space weather purpose. After verification of bread-board model (BBM) in previous years, we are now testing and constructing the SONGS Engineering Model (EM) which has almost the same detector configuration as flight model (FM) aiming at the launch around 2026 by the JAXA innovative satellite technology demonstration program. In this paper, we will introduce our SONGS project and report on the current status and performance of the SONGS EM.

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