Science Considerations for the NPOESS Medium Energy Particle Sensor (MEPS)

The Medium Energy Particle Sensor (MEPS) to be developed as part of the Space Environment Sensor Suite (SESS) for the NPOESS Spacecraft will cover the energy range from 150keV to 10MeV for protons and 50keV to 4 MeV for electrons. It will also include dosimeter capability similar to that of the AMPTEK Compact Environmental Anomaly SEnsor (CEASE). The proton and electron telescopes are significant enhancements of the heritage instruments presently flying on the NOAA/NASA GOES and POES spacecraft. An overview of the MEPS instrument will be presented concentrating on the particle flux levels to be measured over the MEPS energy ranges and the dosimeter dose and Linear Energy Transfer (LET) data. In addition to the operational value of these data related to spacecraft system design and anomaly investigations, selected scientific results of previous investigations from data taken by heritage instruments will be presented. [The science related work is sponsored in part by AFRL under contract F1962802C0086.]