Solar Physics Division Meeting 2000, June 19-22
Session 2. Corona, Solar Wind, Flares, CMEs, Solar-stellar, Instrumentation, Other
Display, Chair: J. Krall, Monday-Thursday, June 19, 2000, 8:00am-6:00pm, Forum Ballroom

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[2.88] High Energy Proton Spectrum of the 6 November 1997 Ground Level Event Observed by Milagrito

A.D. Falcone (Univ. of New Hampshire), Milagro Collaboration

High energy Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) associated with the 6 November 1997 solar flare/CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) have been detected with Milagrito, a prototype of the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory. While SEP acceleration beyond 1 GeV is well established, few data exist for protons or ions beyond 10 GeV. The Milagro observatory, a ground based water Cherenkov detector designed for observing very high energy gamma ray sources, can also be used to study the Sun. Milagrito, the Milagro prototype which operated for approximately one year in 1997/98, was sensitive to solar proton and neutron fluxes above ~4 GeV. Milagrito operated in a scaler mode which was primarily sensitive to muons, low energy photons, and electrons, and the detector operated in a mode sensitive to showers and high zenith angle muons. In its scaler mode, Milagrito registered a rate increase, which was approximately 22x background fluctuations, coincident with the 6 November 1997 ground level event observed by Climax and other neutron monitors. An analysis of the high energy proton spectrum of this event has been carried out, and it appears to be consistent with data from neutron monitors.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: afalcone@comptel.sr.unh.edu

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