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AGILE: An innovative instrument concept to identify and characterize solar energetic particles
  • +8
  • Shrikanth G Kanekal,
  • Christophe Royon,
  • Doumerg W. d'Assignies,
  • Florian Gautier,
  • Ashley D Greeley,
  • Tommaso Isidori,
  • Nicola Minafra,
  • Alexander Novikov,
  • Eric Oberla,
  • Quintin Schiller,
  • Robert Young
Shrikanth G Kanekal
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Christophe Royon
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
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Doumerg W. d'Assignies
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
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Florian Gautier
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
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Ashley D Greeley
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Tommaso Isidori
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
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Nicola Minafra
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
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Alexander Novikov
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
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Eric Oberla
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
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Quintin Schiller
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center
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Robert Young
3Instrumentation Design Laboratory, University of Kansas
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Abstract

We describe a novel particle telescope, the Advanced enerGetic Ion eLectron tElescope (AGILE), which utilizes
full pulse shape discrimination to identify solar energetic particles (SEP), and characterizes their spectra from
about 2 to 200 MeV/nuc for most species from H to Fe. AGILE is a compact, low mass, and low-power particle
telescope suitable for CubeSat platforms that enable multi-point measurements in interplanetary space. AGILE will
employ high heritage solid state detectors, a state-of-art high-speed sampling ASIC, as well as novel algorithms to
characterize SEP to advance the
understanding of charged particle energization, loss, and transport throughout the heliosphere.
AGILE will resolve ion isotopes (e.g. $^3$He vs. $^4$He) with high robustness and reliability.
Currently, a prototype of the instrument is being built and will be part of
science payload on the GenSat-1 CubeSat. GenSat-1 is expected be launched early 2022 into a
high inclination low earth orbit, with AGILE collecting data over the polar regions, i.e., the open field line
regions accessed by SEP.