Valeria Di Felice

This paper presents the project Comprehensive spAce wEather Studies for the ASPIS prototype Realization (CAESAR), which aims to tackle the relevant aspects of Space Weather (SWE) science and develop a prototype of the scientific data centre for Space Weather of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) called ASPIS (ASI SPace Weather InfraStructure). To this end, CAESAR involves the majority of the SWE Italian community, bringing together 10 Italian institutions as partners, and a total of 92 researchers. The CAESAR approach encompasses the whole chain of phenomena from the Sun to Earth up to planetary environments in a multidisciplinary, comprehensive, and unprecedented way. Detailed and integrated studies are being performed on a number of well-observed “target SWE events”, which exhibit noticeable SWE characteristics from several SWE perspectives. CAESAR investigations synergistically exploit a great variety of different products (datasets, codes, models), both long-standing and novel, that will be made available in the ASPIS prototype: this will consist of a relational database (DB), an interface, and a wiki-like documentation structure. The DB will be accessed through both a Web graphical interface and the ASPIS.py module, i.e., a library of functions in Python, which will be available for download and installation. The ASPIS prototype will unify multiple SWE resources through a flexible and adaptable architecture, and will integrate currently available international SWE assets to foster scientific studies and advance forecasting capabilities.

Multimessenger astrophysics is based on the detection, with the highest possible accuracy, of the cosmic radiation. During the last 20 years, the advent space-borne magnetic spectrometers in space (AMS-01, Pamela, AMS-02), able to measure the charged cosmic radiation separating matter from antimatter, and to provide accurate measurement of the rarest components of Cosmic Rays (CRs) to the highest possible energies, have become possible, together with the ultra-precise measurement of ordinary CRs. These developments started the era of precision Cosmic Ray physics providing access to a rich program of high-energy astrophysics addressing fundamental questions like matter-antimatter asymmetry, indirect detection for Dark Matter and the detailed study of origin, acceleration and propagation of CRs and their interactions with the interstellar medium.In this paper we address the above-mentioned scientific questions, in the context of a second generation, large acceptance, superconducting magnetic spectrometer proposed as mission in the context of the European Space Agency’s Voyage2050 long-term plan: the Antimatter Large Acceptance Detector In Orbit (ALADInO) would extend by about two orders of magnitude in energy and flux sensitivity the separation between charged particles/anti-particles, making it uniquely suited for addressing and potentially solving some of the most puzzling issues of modern cosmology.

Spacecraft observations of cosmic ray antimatter intensities can potentially shed new light on previously unknown physics and hence play an essential role in the search for dark matter. At lower energies, however, these particles experience considerable modulation in the heliosphere. Since the advent of cosmic ray modulation studies, simplified approaches to solving the Parker transport equation have been used to glean insights from observations as to the behavior of these particles. We show, due to the inherent limitations imposed by the assumptions made in simplifying the Parker equation, that the use of these approaches can introduce unknown uncertainties into analyses based on them, and thus that these approaches should be used with caution, especially when novel insights into potentially new physics are sought.

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope primary detector (CALET-CAL) is a 30 radiation-length-deep hybrid calorimeter designed for the accurate measurement of high-energy cosmic rays. It is capable of triggering on and giving near complete containment of electromagnetic showers from primary electrons and gamma rays from 1 GeV to over 10 TeV. The first 24 months of on-orbit scientific data (2015 November 01–2017 October 31) provide valuable characterization of the performance of the calorimeter based on analyses of the gamma-ray data set in general and bright point sources in particular. We describe the gamma-ray analysis, the expected performance of the calorimeter based on Monte Carlo simulations, the agreement of the flight data with the simulated results, and the outlook for long-term gamma-ray observations with the CAL.

We present the results of searches for gamma-ray counterparts of the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave events using CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) observations. The main instrument of CALET, CALorimeter (CAL), observes gamma-rays from ∼1 GeV up to 10 TeV with a field of view (FOV) of nearly 2 sr. In addition, the CALET gamma-ray burst monitor views ∼3 sr and ∼2π sr of the sky in the 7 keV–1 MeV and the 40 keV–20 MeV bands, respectively, by using two different crystal scintillators. The CALET observations on the International Space Station started in 2015 October, and here we report analyses of events associated with the following gravitational wave events: GW151226, GW170104, GW170608, GW170814, and GW170817. Although only upper limits on gamma-ray emission are obtained, they correspond to a luminosity of 10⁴⁹ ∼ 10⁵³ erg s⁻¹ in the GeV energy band depending on the distance and the assumed time duration of each event, which is approximately on the order of luminosity of typical short gamma-ray bursts. This implies that there will be a favorable opportunity to detect high-energy gamma-ray emission in further observations if additional gravitational wave events with favorable geometry will occur within our FOV. We also show the sensitivity of CALET for gamma-ray transient events, which is on the order of 10⁻⁷ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹ for an observation of 100 s in duration.

The cosmic ray (CR) lithium and beryllium (⁶Li, ⁷Li, ⁷Be, ⁹Be, ¹⁰Be) isotopic composition has been measured with the satellite-borne experiment PAMELA, which was launched into low-Earth orbit on board the Resurs-DK1 satellite on 2006 June 15. The rare lithium and beryllium isotopes in CRs are believed to originate mainly from the interaction of high-energy carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen nuclei with the interstellar medium (ISM), but also on “tertiary” interactions in the ISM (i.e., produced by further fragmentation of secondary beryllium and boron). In this paper, the isotopic ratios ⁷Li/⁶Li and ⁷Be/(⁹Be + ¹⁰Be), measured between 150 and 1100 MeV n⁻¹ using two different detector systems from 2006 July to 2014 September, will be presented.

Precise measurements of the time-dependent intensity of the low-energy (<50 GeV) galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) are fundamental to test and improve the models that describe their propagation inside the heliosphere. In particular, data spanning different solar activity periods, i.e., from minimum to maximum, are needed to achieve comprehensive understanding of such physical phenomena. The minimum phase between solar cycles 23 and 24 was peculiarly long, extending up to the beginning of 2010 and followed by the maximum phase, reached during early 2014. In this Letter, we present proton differential spectra measured from 2010 January to 2014 February by the PAMELA experiment. For the first time the GCR proton intensity was studied over a wide energy range (0.08–50 GeV) by a single apparatus from a minimum to a maximum period of solar activity. The large statistics allowed the time variation to be investigated on a nearly monthly basis. Data were compared and interpreted in the context of a state-of-the-art three-dimensional model describing the GCRs propagation through the heliosphere.

Protons detected by the PAMELA experiment in the period 2006–2014 have been analyzed in the energy range between 0.40 and 50 GV to explore possible periodicities besides the well known solar undecennial modulation. An unexpected clear and regular feature has been found at rigidities below 15 GV, with a quasi-periodicity of ∼450 days. A possible Jovian origin of this periodicity has been investigated in different ways. The results seem to favor a small but not negligible contribution to cosmic rays from the Jovian magnetosphere, even if other explanations cannot be excluded.

A new Cosmic Ray DataBase (CRDB) is under development at the Space Science Data Center, a facility of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) that provides support to several space missions and acts as a multi-mission science operation, data processing and data archiving center. To ensure a more extensive utilisation of space data from existing, archived and future missions, on-line access to archival data, analysis software, calibration files and documentation are provided by a MultiMission Interactive Archive (MMIA) of the Space Science Data Center. Space data from different missions and in different research fields (astro-physics, astro-particle, cosmology, planetology) are connected in the MMIA in order to stimulate their cross-analysis and comparison. In this context, the CRDB aims to provide the scientific community with tools for an easy and efficient access to published data from missions dedicated to charged Cosmic Rays measurements. Originally developed to support the retrieval of PAMELA and AMS-02 results, it is now expanding to include more data sets from other experiments and evolving to provide new tools for data retrieval, visualisation and download. As an example, measurements of differential energy fluxes and flux ratios for the different species are available as a function of various parameters (e.g. energy, rigidity, time, magnetic parameters), for particles of galactic and solar origin, as well as particles trapped in the Earth magnetosphere. Data are ready for retrieval, visualisation and download. In this contribution, we will introduce the main features of the CRDB, accessible online at http://tools.asdc.asi.it/CosmicRays/, and the perspectives for its future development.