Space-weather capabilities and preliminary results of the high energy particle detector (HEPD) on board the CSES-01 satellite

CSES-01 (China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite) is a mission developed by CNSA (Chinese National Space Administration) and ASI (Italian Space Agency) to investigate the near-Earth electromagnetic, plasma and particle environment, focusing on the disturbances of the ionosphere-magnetosphere transition region. In this framework, the Italian High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD) on board CSES-01, is an advanced detector based on a tower of scintillators and a silicon tracker that provide good energy resolution as well as a wide angular acceptance for electrons of 3-100 MeV, protons of 30-200 MeV and light nuclei (up to Oxygen). The very good capabilities in both detection and discrimination of particles make the detector well suited for space-weather purposes; indeed HEPD is able to continuously monitor the magnetospheric environment with high precision and stability in time. Turbulent conditions in the near-Earth environment translate into modification of particles and magnetic/electric measurements at different time-scales. In this work, the data-analysis techniques and some preliminary results concerning the study of different proton populations encountered along CSES-01 orbit (galactic cosmic rays, re-entrant albedo etc.) are presented. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).