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A study of the composition and energy spectra of anomalous cosmic rays using the geomagnetic field
Author(s) -
Mewaldt R. A.,
Cummings J. R.,
Leske R. A.,
Selesnick R. S.,
Stone E. C.,
von Rosenvinge T. T.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/96gl00423
Subject(s) - cosmic ray , earth's magnetic field , physics , rigidity (electromagnetism) , spectral line , spectrometer , magnetic field , astrophysics , charged particle , computational physics , ion , nuclear physics , astronomy , optics , quantum mechanics
We use instrumentation on SAMPEX and the Earth's field as a magnetic rigidity filter in a “double spectrometer” approach to measure the composition and energy spectra of anomalous cosmic rays (ACRs) with Z≥6. A “pure” sample of anomalous cosmic ray C, N, O, and Ne is obtained, with no significant evidence for other species. The bulk of ACRs are now known to be singly‐charged, and the geomagnetic filter allows their energy spectra to be measured to higher energies than before. The anomalous oxygen spectrum is found to extend to at least ∼100 MeV/nuc, which has implications for models of the acceleration of these ions.