SONTRAC-a low background, large area solar neutron spectrometer

Authors

C B. Wunderer, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
D Holslin, Science Applications International Corporation
John R. Macri, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
Mark L. McConnell, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
James M. Ryan, University of New HampshireFollow

Abstract

SONTRAC will measure 20-250 MeV neutrons from solar flares using scintillator fibers viewed by CCD cameras to track neutron-proton scatters. SONTRAC can also be used to track gamma rays above 20 MeV. Veto shields are used to reject all charged particles. Gamma-ray and neutron events have very different track densities, allowing discrimination between the two. Double neutron-proton scatters allow unambiguous determination of the incident neutron energy and direction. Therefore, SONTRAC is capable of rejecting almost all background except neutrons from the solar direction. SONTRAC would have detected the June 15, 1991 flare with 42σ for 20-100 MeV neutrons, having an effective area of 17 cm² in that energy range. The authors present SONTRAC prototype performance results both forneutrons at threshold energy and for cosmic-ray muons

Department

Space Science Center, Physics

Publication Date

7-1997

Journal Title

Conference on the High Energy Radiation Background in Space, 1997.

Publisher

IEEE

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1109/CHERBS.1997.660251

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Recommended Citation

Wunderer, C.B.; Holslin, D.; Macri, J.R.; McConnell, M.; Ryan, J.M., "SONTRAC-a low background, large area solar neutron spectrometer," High Energy Radiation Background in Space, 1997 Conference on the , vol., no., pp.73,76, 22-23 Jul 1997 doi: 10.1109/CHERBS.1997.660251

Rights

c 1998 IEEE