NSSDCA ID: 1962-051A-03
Mission Name: Explorer 14The experiment was designed to obtain separately definitive values of the absolute intensities of geomagnetically trapped electrons (E>40 keV and E>230 keV) and protons (E>500 keV) particularly in the outer zone. The experiment used an array of three thin-windowed Anton type 213 directional GM counters. The detectors were oriented perpendicular to the spacecraft spin axis. (The spacecraft had an initial spin period of about 6 s on January 24, 1963.) The experiment was also designed to study the physical phenomena near the boundary of the magnetosphere. An omnidirectional 302 GM detector was used to gather data for comparison with measurements obtained with the 302 type GM detectors on earlier satellites. Each detector was sampled for 10.24 s, and the accumulated counts were transmitted redundantly every 76.8 s. The trapped particles experiment operated satisfactorily until August 11, 1963, when modulation of the telemetry signal ceased.
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Coordinated Request and User Support Office
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Mr. H. Kiel | General Contact | University of Iowa | |
Prof. Louis A. Frank | Other Investigator | University of Iowa | frank@iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu |
Prof. James A. Van Allen | Principal Investigator | University of Iowa |