In-flight calibration of RADEM, the JUICE mission radiation monitor

TL;DR

The paper details the in-flight calibration of RADEM, a radiation monitor on JUICE, using cosmic rays to improve proton flux measurements during the mission.

Contribution

It introduces a novel in-flight calibration method for RADEM sensors based on cosmic ray data, enhancing measurement accuracy.

Findings

Calibration slopes can differ by up to an order of magnitude from ground calibration.

Proton fluxes from solar energetic particles agree within a factor of two with SOHO measurements.

RADEM effectively measures proton fluxes in interplanetary space for multi-mission studies.

Abstract

The RADiation-hard Electron Monitor (RADEM) aboard the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), launched on 14 April 2023, measures high-energy protons and electrons during the cruise phase and will continue throughout the nominal mission. Initial in-flight observations could not be explained by pre-flight ground calibration, motivating an in-flight calibration campaign. We calibrated the RADEM sensors using galactic cosmic rays by progressively increasing detector thresholds, thereby modifying their response to high-energy particles. Threshold-dependent in-flight count rates were compared with theoretical expectations derived from the Badhwar-O'Neill 2020 galactic cosmic ray model and corresponding response functions. These results were used to derive new in-flight calibration coefficients and to develop a flux reconstruction algorithm based on the bow-tie method. In several cases, the in-flight calibration slopes differ by up to an order of magnitude from ground calibration values. Proton fluxes from solar energetic particle events reconstructed with this method agree within a factor of two with independent measurements from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. These results demonstrate that RADEM provides accurate proton flux measurements in interplanetary space and is well suited for both single-spacecraft analyses and coordinated multi-mission studies of solar energetic particles. While electrons were clearly detected during the JUICE Lunar-Earth gravity assist, reliable reconstruction of their fluxes requires further analysis.