Open AccessIsotope composition of secondary hydrogen and helium above the atmosphere measured by the instruments NINA and NINA‐2
Author(s) -
Bidoli V.,
Casolino M.,
De Pascale M.,
Furano G.,
Iannucci A.,
Morselli A.,
Picozza P.,
Sparvoli R.,
Bakaldin A.,
Galper A.,
Koldashov S.,
Korotkov M.,
Leonov A.,
Mikhailov V.,
Voronov S.,
Boezio M.,
Bonvicini V.,
Vacchi A.,
Zampa G.,
Zampa N.,
Ambriola M.,
Cafagna F.,
Circella M.,
De Marzo C.,
Adriani O.,
Papini P.,
Spillantini P.,
Straulino S.,
Vannuccini E.,
Ricci M.,
Castellini G.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2002ja009684
Subject(s) - la niña , helium , atmosphere (unit) , altitude (triangle) , physics , atmospheric sciences , spectral line , geology , analytical chemistry (journal) , astronomy , chemistry , atomic physics , meteorology , precipitation , geometry , mathematics , chromatography
In this paper we report on the energy spectra and abundance ratios of hydrogen and helium isotopes of albedo origin, measured by the instruments NINA and NINA‐2 in near‐equatorial regions. The instrument NINA flew on board the satellite Resurs‐01‐N4 between 1998 and 1999, at a 830 km average altitude. The NINA‐2 apparatus, on board the satellite MITA, was put into orbit in July 2000 at an altitude of about 450 km. NINA and NINA‐2 measurements revealed that 2 H, 3 H, 3 He, and 4 He are a significant portion of the secondary flux above the atmosphere. The energy spectra of hydrogen isotopes are practically flat across the energy range of 10–40 MeV/n, while the spectra of helium isotopes can be fitted by a power law of spectral indexes γ = 0.8 and γ = 1.5 for 3 He and 4 He, respectively.