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Van Allen Probes instrument calibration results of the for ECT-HOPE and RBSPICE energetic particle detectors
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  • Jerry Manweiler,
  • Christopher Mouikis,
  • Alex Boyd,
  • Brian Larsen,
  • Ruth Skoug,
  • Matina Gkioulidou,
  • Louis Lanzerotti,
  • Harlan Spence,
  • Geoffrey Reeves,
  • Andrew Gerrard
Jerry Manweiler
Fundamental Technologies, LLC

Corresponding Author:manweiler@ftecs.com

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Christopher Mouikis
Univ New Hampshire
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Alex Boyd
The Aerospace Corporation
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Brian Larsen
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Ruth Skoug
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Matina Gkioulidou
JHU/APL
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Louis Lanzerotti
New Jersey Inst Tech
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Harlan Spence
University of New Hampshire
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Geoffrey Reeves
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Andrew Gerrard
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research
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Abstract

Understanding the dynamical behavior of plasma and energetic particles in Earth’s inner magnetosphere requires carefully designed and calibrated instrumentation. The Van Allen Probes Mission included two instruments capable of measuring the proton distribution function in-situ. The Energetic Particle Composition and Thermal Plasma Suite (ECT) – Helium Oxygen, Proton, and Electron (HOPE) spectrometer (Spence et al., 2013; Funsten et al., 2013) used a top-hat detector designed to measure protons from the SC potential through 50 KeV in logarithmic energy steps. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Detector (RBSPICE) instrument (Mitchell, 2013) used a time of flight and SSD detector design to measure protons from approximately 7 KeV through 650 KeV in logarithmic energy steps. Using the overlap of energy channels between the two instruments, the two instrument teams have worked diligently during the final Phase F of the mission to calibrate the observations so that a continuous distribution function can be resolved on nearly a spin-by-spin basis. During the life of these two instruments calibration changes have been required both on-board the spacecraft as well as within the final production datasets. Manweiler (2018) provided an early report on the intercalibration factors between HOPE and RBSPICE with a nominal factor of two difference between the proton data sets in the energy range between 7 and 50 KeV. With the final production of each of these data sets occurring in Fall 2021, both teams have been worked together to provide for an understanding of the required intercalibration factors to be used so that a full distribution function is available on a spin-by-spin basis. In this poster we report on the final efforts to provide this calibrated set of data products between the two instruments. Details of the intercalibration calculations are presented as well as year by year L by MLT maps of the factors required to match both datasets. Finally, we report on a supplementary data set that is to be made available which contains the spin-by-spin factors required to match the ECT/HOPE and RBSPICE/TOFxPH proton datasets. Funsten, H.O., et al. Space Sci Rev 179, 2013 Manweiler, J. W., et al., 2018 GEM Summer Workshop. Mitchell, D.G., et al., Space Sci. Rev., 179, 2013 Spence, H.E., et al. Space Sci Rev 179, 2013