Detection of 6 November 1997 Ground Level Event by Milagrito
Abe Falcone
for Milagro collaboration
Abstract
Solar Energetic Particles (SEP) from the 6 November 1997 solar
flare/CME with energies exceeding 10 GeV have been detected by
Milagrito, a prototype of the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory.
While particle acceleration beyond 1 GeV at the Sun 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, which operated for
approximately one year in 1997/98, was sensitive to solar proton
and neutron fluxes above 5 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 coincident with the
6 Nov 1997 ground level event observed by Climax and other neutron
monitors. Initial results from an analysis of this event's proton
spectrum will be presented.
File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.32.
On 16 Jul 1999, 09:19.