Simulation of a Time-Of-Flight Telescope for Suprathermal Ions in the Heliosphere

TL;DR

This paper presents a Monte Carlo simulation of a time-of-flight suprathermal ion telescope, analyzing how scattering, energy loss, and noise affect its resolution in space-based measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation framework for the SIT instrument using Geant 3.21, accounting for various physical effects impacting measurement accuracy.

Findings

Scattering significantly affects energy resolution.

Energy losses impact the accuracy of particle detection.

System noise influences the instrument's mass resolution.

Abstract

A Monte Carlo code based on Geant 3.21 has been used for simulations of energy losses and angular scattering in a time-of-flight Suprathermal Ion Telescope (SIT) on the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). A hemispherical isotropic particle distribution, a monoenergetic or power law in energy is used in these simulations. The impact of scattering, energy losses and system noise on the instrument mass resolution is discussed.