liulin type spectrometers: new developments

Fundamental Space Research, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, 21-28 Sep 2008

SPACE INSTRUMENTATION AND TECHNOLOGIES 271

Liulin Type Spectrometers: New Developments

Pl. Dimitrov1, F. Spurny

2, B. Tomov

1, Yu. Matviichuk

1, Ts. Dachev

1

1Solar-Terrestrial Influences Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria, [email protected]

2Nuclear Physics Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, [email protected]

The aim of this paper is to be described the last developments in the Liulin type spectrometers. In the Solar-

Terrestrial Influences Laboratory thematic group “Assessment of the space radiation risk” few new type

miniature spectrometers-dosimeters were developed and will be used in space and on aircrafts. The basic

configuration of the instruments contain: one semiconductor detector, one charge-sensitive preamplifier, 1 slave

and 1 master microcontrollers and a flash memory or communication port. Front pulse technique is used for the

obtaining of the amplitude of each pulse in the detector. The organized in 256 channels deposited energy

spectrum is summarized and the deposited dose and flux from primary and secondary particles is calculated.

This configuration was maintained for the RADOM instrument, which will be launched in October 2008 on first

Indian moon satellite – Chandrayaan-1 toward 100 km circular orbit around the Moon. For the purposes of the

aircraft monitoring the basic configuration were enriched by new developed SD/MMC cards and with Liquid

crystal displays. The spectrum interpretation procedure was also developed with opportunity to be calculated the

apparent dose equivalent on aircrafts and spacecrafts. Examples of the obtained new results are presented and

interrelated.

Introduction Liulin-4 and 6 type spectrometers are successors of the

Bulgarian-Russian dosimeter-radiometer LIULIN [1] and of

Liulin-E094 [2] instruments. LIULIN was installed in the

working compartment of the MIR space station in 1988.

LIULIN measurements were carried out under a wide variety

of solar and geomagnetic activity conditions [2-7]. Liulin-

E094 was a part of the experiment Dosimetric Mapping E094

which was placed in the US Laboratory Module as a part of

the Human Research Facility (HRF) of Expedition Two

Mission 5A.1, STS-102 Space Shuttle Flight in May-August

time frame of 2001 [8-10].

Instruments descriptions

Space instruments

Liulin-ISS experiment on International Space Station (ISS)

The Mobile Radiation Exposure Control System - Liulin-

ISS [11], shown on Figure 1 is planed to begin in December

of 2005. The instrument is mutually developed with

colleagues from IMBP, Moscow. It was delivered to ISS in

September of 2005 and is expected to be operated by 12th

crew of ISS - Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer

Valery Tokarev. It contains 4 Mobile Dosimetry Units

(MDU) with displays and one Control and Interface Unit

(CIU) and is scheduled to be used for 15 years in the Service

Radiation Monitoring System of the Russian segment of ISS.

Following information is able to be shown on the displays of

MDUs: - Current dose in (µGy/hour); - Current event rate

(Flux) (cm-2

s-1

);- Accumulated from the “Switch ON” dose

(µGy). The battery operation time of the spectrometers is

about 7 days. The weight of MDU including 80 g battery is

229 grams, while the size is 110x80x25 mm. The power

consumption of the MDU is 84 mW.

On Figure 2 are shown the aircraft flight results obtained

with 5 of the 6 MDUs of the system (2 MDUs are spare). The

flight was performed on 17 November 202 on the route Sofia-

Moscow. It is well seen from the picture that the doses and

fluxes curves from different MDUs are very

close, which guarantee good data from space.

Another feature seen from the figure is the rise

up of the doses and fluxes from left to right,

which is as a result of rise up of the

geomagnetic latitude of the flight and respective

decrease of the cut-off rigidity.

The Liulin-ISS system was successfully

calibrated in 2004 by our Russian colleague –

Victor Bengin on HIMAC heavy ion accelerator

in National Institute for Radiological Sciences

in Chiba, Japan.

R3D spectrometer

The R3D

spectrometer [12]

is mutually

developed with the

colleagues from

University in Erlangen, Germany

and is expected to be launched

first designed as R3D-1 to

Russian segment of ISS in 2006

Preamplifier

Master

Micro-

controller

Detector

2 cm2; 0.3 mm

110 V, 400 Hz AC

Internet

Module

Micro-

contoller

AC/DC

Converter

LCD

Display

Discriminator

Slave

MCU

12 bit

ADC

LAN

12 V DC

Satellite

telemetryFlash

memory

Battery

28 or 43 V DC

3.6 V DC 7.2 V DC

USB

Serial or

Parallel port

GPS

antenna

GPS

ReceiverMMC or

SD card

GPS

MCU

Preamplifier

Master

Micro-

controller

Detector

2 cm2; 0.3 mm

110 V, 400 Hz AC

Internet

Module

Micro-

contoller

AC/DC

Converter

LCD

Display

Discriminator

Slave

MCU

12 bit

ADC

LAN

12 V DC

Satellite

telemetryFlash

memory

Battery

28 or 43 V DC

3.6 V DC 7.2 V DC

USB

Serial or

Parallel port

GPS

antenna

GPS

ReceiverMMC or

SD card

GPS

MCU

Fig.1. External view of Liulin-ISS dosimetry system. The large block above is the

CIU, while 2 MDUs are shown below.

Fig.3. External view of R3D

spectrometer as mounted in one of

the 8 holes of the EXPOSE facility.



and next to ESA Columbus module in 2008 as R3D-2. On

Figure 3 is presented the

R3D-1external view of the

spectrometer while on

Figure 4 is seen an artist

view of EXPOSE facility as

mounted outside of ESA

Columbus module.

EXPOSE will support

long term in situ studies of

microbes in artificial

meteorites as well as of

microbial communities from

special ecological niches,

such as endolithic and

endoevaporitic ecosystems.

The Radiation Risks

Radiometer-Dosimeter (R3D) is a low mass and small

dimensions automatic device, which will measure solar

radiation in 4 channels and cosmic ionizing radiation. The

four-channel: UV-A (315-400 nm), UV-B (280-315 nm),

UV-C (<280 nm) and Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR)

(400-700 nm) filter dosimeter will measure the solar UV

irradiance in W/m2

. Additional measurements of the

temperature of the UV detectors are performed for more

precise UV irradiance

measurements. The

deposited energy spectra of

the cosmic ionizing radiation

will be measured in a 256-

channel spectrometer. The

analysis of the spectra will

give as well the total dose in

µGy/h and the particle flux

in particle/cm2

s.

Measurements of the UV and

ionizing radiation parameters

will have 30 second time

resolution and will be

transmitted by the ISS

telemetry system to the

ground. All available data

will be organized in a

specialized database, which will support the analysis of the

experiments on the EXPOSE facility.

R3D-1/2 instruments were build and delivered to

University of Erlangen for further tests and calibrations. On

Figure 5 is shown the vibration test of EXPOSE facility with

integrated in R3D-1 instrument.

The weight of R3D is 189 grams, while the size is

76x76x34 mm. The power consumption of the MDU is 120

mW.

In June 2005 was performed a successful experiment with

R3D-B2 instrument on Foton M2 satellite, which is object of

separate paper in this issue.

Aircraft instruments

The aircraft experiments were performed by different size

and external view instrumentation. The first type used is same

as the MDUs shown on Figure 1. The large size (100x100x50

mm) without display units are shown on Figure 6. These type

spectrometers were specially designed for long-term

monitoring of the aircrafts

radiation environment. The

total mass is 0.33 kg

including 2x0.09 kg SAFT

LS-33600 Li primary

batteries. The operation time

of the spectrometer is more

than 100 days fulfilling

usually about 0.36 MB of the

total 0.5 MB flash memory

with 480 sec resolution. One

of these type spectrometers

works successfully 5x2 months on CSA A310-300 aircraft

[13]. Most remarkable of it work there is the measurements

during the Ground Level Event -60 (GLE) on the route

Prague-New York on 15.04.2001.

The long-term

variations of the Si dose

and the Event rate for the

flight between

23.03.2001 and

07.05.2001 are presented

on Figure 7. Oulu

neutron monitor data [14]

are used for the reference

variations in the galactic

cosmic rays. From Figure

26 it is well seen that

measured onboard mean

data at the cruise altitude

for the flights from

Prague to New York and

the galactic cosmic rays

variations correlate in

great details. The large

minimums and peaks

seen in the middle of the figure correspond to the forbush

decrease and two solar

cosmic rays events in April

2001.

Another configuration of

large size (90x85x53 mm) for

monitoring of the aircrafts

radiation environment is

shown on Figure 8. The total

mass of it is 0.29 kg

including 1 rechargeable

Sony Li-ion battery. The

operation time of the

spectrometer is more than 30

days. It uses 1 MB flash memory.

Liulin-4SN spectrometer (100x85x25 mm) with 256

channels LETS spectrometer and GPS receiver is presented at

Figure 9 where the spectrometer is in the middle. Li-ion

Rechargeable battery package is at the top of figure. Black

box in right part of the figure is the GPS active antenna.

These type spectrometers were specially designed for the

IBERIA airlines space radiation study program. The

spectrometer is designed for multi-session use with the same

Fig.4. Artist view of EXPOCE

facility as mounted outside of

ESA Columbus module.

Fig.5. Vibration tests of

EXPOSE facility in ESA in

September 2003. R3D-1 is

seen in the down right

corner.

Fig.6. Picture of the large

size LETS without display.

1

2

3

Mean

Dose

ra

te (

uG

y/h

ou

r)

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

Ou

lu N

M c

orr

ecte

d C

ou

nt ra

te (

co

un

ts)

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

M

ean

Even

t ra

te (

cm

^-2

s^-

1)

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125Day in 2001

15 April1 April 30 April

NM counts

Dose

Event Rate

Fig.7. Long-term variations of

dose and event rate obtained

with Liulin in comparison with

Oulu neutron monitor data.

Fig.8. Picture of the large

size LETS with rechargeable

battery.



initialization parameters as the first one. Global Positioning

System receiver is used for processing the signals from all

visible GPS satellites

for 3D geographical

and time positioning

of the measurements.

The receiver provides

an output timing

pulse that is

synchronized to one

second with UTC

(Universal Time

Coordinated)

boundaries. All

measurements are

organized with UTC. The GPS antenna is outside of Liulin-

4S on a 5 m long cable. The power supply of Liulin-4S is

performed with a DC/DC converter, which is electrically

insulated from the internal signal ground and from external

box, which meet JAA requirements for installation of any

equipment in an aircraft.

On Figure 10 are shown a high resolution car route in Sofia

obtained with the GPS

receiver and processed

by Liulin-4SN. The

line with black crosses

is with 10 s

measurement period.

The antenna of the

GPS receiver was on

the roof of the car.

The smallest instrument, build by us is shown on Figure

11. This instrument was specially developed for monitoring

of the doses

and fluxes at

places of

interest during

laboratory tests

and during

aircraft flights.

It is a multi

session

instrument,

which contains internal clock-calendar keeping the correct

date/time during the life of internal battery i.e. not less than

60 days after the beginning of the experiment. That is why

after switch ON the instrument start measurements as the

current date and time is. New data are stored in the flash

memory as a new session and respectively as a new file.

There is practically no limit of the number of the

measurements sessions. Available flash memory capacity of 1

MB is enough for storage of all spectra with 10 sec resolution

for the lifetime of the battery of 60 hours.

The development of internet technologies in last time

stimulates us for the development of internet based

spectrometer, which

measurements can be

posted directly in a

internet page (Figure

12.). The internal

view of the

instrument is shown

at Figure 13. There

are 3 microcircuit

plates shown on

figure: The back two

plates are developed

by is and it functions is described below in the paper. The

first plate toward the reader is a commercially available

internet module with 22 MHz microprocessor, 512K flash

and 512K SRAM memory. This module is connected directly

to the net with a standard LAN interface. It generates HTML

and FTP standard communication protocols, which are used

for the generation of the WEB page (Figure 14.). and for

Fig.10. Car route (line with crests (+)) in Sofia obtained with

the GPS receiver and processed by Liulin-4SN.

Fig.11. External views of the Liulin-

4SN components.

Fig.12. External view of Liulin-6I WEB

based instrument.

Fig.13. External view of Liulin-6I

WEB based instrument..

Fig.14a. Current values section of the Liulin-6I WEB page.

Fig.14b. Table and configuration section of the WEB page.

Fig.9. External views of the Liulin-

4SN components.



transfer of the total amount of data . Current values section of

the WEB page looks as shown on Figure 14a, while the table

and settings section are shown on Figure 14b.

To operate properly the Internet module requires settings of

fixed “IP Address”, “Net Mask Address”, “Gate Way

Address” and “Name Server Address”. The title, Internet

settings and FTP download link of the WEP page are

organized in a password protected “Configuration page”.

After proper connection to AC/DC power supply and to

Internet the instrument first is getting from following Internet

IP address: “129.6.15.29” i.e. (time-6.nist.gov.NIST.

Gaitherburg.Mariland) the universal time - UT. If this

connection failed it starts to operate at default date and time,

which are 01.01.2001 and 01.01.01. It searches again the

Internet UT at each hour till the connection with it. When a

proper connection with Internet “IP 129.6.15.29” exists at

14:25:00 UT time each day the instrument internal time is

corrected toward the UT. Further it starts to accumulate in

256 channels during the pre-selected exposition time the first

spectrum, which is used for calculation of the dose and the

flux. The optimal time settings which we recommend are:

“Data Average Interval [sec]: = 3600” sec; “Exposition time

[sec]:” = 600 sec; “IE Auto refresh time [sec]: - 600 sec. The

exposition time is variable in the interval 5 sec - 3539 sec.

After finishing the first measurement cycle the spectra data

are compressed and stored in the cyclic organized flash

memory of Internet module. The available maximum storage

place is 200 K, which corresponds to 2-3 months of operation

of the instrument with 600 sec exposition time.

2 WEB based Liulin spectrometers was delivered and now

are working at ALOMAR observatory, Norway

(http://128.39.135.6) and at Jungfrau peak in Alps (3475 m

asl), Switzerland (http://130.92.231.184/).

Comparison of ALOMAR observatory Liulin-R data with

Oulu Neutron monitors data [14] during the Forbush decrease

in September 2005 is shown on Figure 15. On the upper panel

the neutron monitor corrected with the atmospheric pressure

averaged per 5 minutes counts are shown while on the bottom

panel the Liulin-R counts per 10 minutes. The heavy line

there is the moving average over 21 dots, while the heavy

horizontal line represents the position of the averaged counts

(86.4 per 10 minutes).

Conclusions The results of our studies have shown, we believe, that the

Liulin type dosimeters represent a very useful, versatile and

flexible facility to monitor the absorbed dose from many

types of ionizing radiation and the charged particle fluence

rates.

References [1] Dachev, Ts. P., Yu. N. Matviichuk, J. V. Semkova, R. T. Koleva, B.

Boichev, P. Baynov, N. A. Kanchev, P. Lakov, Ya. J. Ivanov, P. T. Tomov, V. M. Petrov, V. I. Redko, V. I. Kojarinov, R. Tykva, Space radiation dosimetry with active detections for the scientific program of the second Bulgarian cosmonaut on board the Mir space station, Adv. Space Res., 9, 10, 247, 1989.

[2] Dachev, Ts. P., Yu. N. Matviichuk, N. G. Bankov, Ya. J. Ivanov, B. T. Tomov, V. M. Petrov, V. I. Redko, M. V. Zil, V. G. Mitrakas, T. N. Smirnova, V. V. Temny, Yu. N. Ponomarev, R. Tykva, "Mir" Radiation Dosimetry Results during the Solar Flares events in September-October 1989, Adv. Space Res., 12, 2-2, (2)321-4, 1992.

[3] Dachev Ts.P., J.V.Semkova, Yu.N.Matviichuk, R.T. Koleva, B.T. Tomov, P.T. Baynov, J.F. Bottollier- Depois, V.D. Nguen, L. Lebaron-Jacobs, M. Siegrist, E. Duvivier, B. Almarcha, V.M. Petrov, V.V. Shurshakov, New results for the space radiation environment of MIR space station obtained by Liulin dosimeterradiometer. Comparison with let spectrometer NAUSICAA, Acta Astronautica, vol.36 ,Nos 8-12, pp 505-515 ,1995.

[4] Dachev Ts.P., J.V. Semkova, Yu.N. Matviichuk, B.T. Tomov, R.T. Koleva, P.T. Baynov, V.M. Petrov, V.V. Shurshakov, Yu. Ivanov, Inner Magnetosphere Variations after Solar Proton Events, Observations on Mir Space Station In 1989-1994 Time Period, Adv. Space Res., 22, No 4, 521, 1998.

[5] Dachev, Ts., J. Semkova, V. Petrov, V. Redko, V. Bengin, T. Kostereva, J. Miller, L. Heilbronn, C. Zeitlin, Analysis of the pre -flight and post-flight calibration procedures performed on the LIULIN space radiation dosimeter, Acta Astronautica, 42, 375, 1998.

[6] Dachev, Ts.P. B.T. Tomov, Yu.N. Matviichuk, R.T. Koleva, J.V. Semkova, V.M. Petrov, V.V. Benghin, Yu.V. Ivanov, V.A. Shurshakov, J. Lemaire, Detailed Study of the SPE and their Effects on the Dose Rate and Flux Distribution Observed by LIULIN Instrument on MIR Space Station, Radiation measurements, 30 (3), pp. 317-325, 1999.

[7] Dachev, Ts.P. B.T. Tomov, Yu.N. Matviichuk, R.T. Koleva, J.V. Semkova, V.M. Petrov, V.V. Benghin, Yu.V. Ivanov, V.A. Shurshakov, J. Lemaire, Solar Cycle Variations of MIR Radiation Environment as Observed by the LIULIN Dosimeter, Radiation Measurements, 30 (3), pp. 269-274, 1999.

[8] Reitz, G., R. Beaujean, Ts. Dachev, S. Deme, M. Luszik-Bhadra, W. Heinrich, P. Olko and M. Scherkenbach, ISS Radiation Measurements Using the Dosimetric Mapping Experiment, paper F2.5-0013-02 presented at 34th COSPAR Assembly, Houston TX, 10-19 Oct. 2002.

[9] Dachev, Ts., B. Tomov, Yu. Matviichuk, Pl. Dimitrov, J. Lemaire, Gh. Gregoire, M. Cyamukungu, H. Schmitz, K. Fujitaka, Y. Uchihori, H. Kitamura, G. Reitz, R. Beaujean, V. Petrov, V. Shurshakov, V. Benghin, F. Spurny, Calibration Results Obtained With Liulin-4 Type Dosimeters, Adv. Space Reas., V 30, No 4, pp. 917-925, 2002.

[10] Dachev, T. W. Atwell, E. Semones, B. Tomov, B. Reddell, ISS Observations of the Trapped Proton Anisotropic Effect: A Comparison with Model Calculations, paper F2.6-0022-04, presented at 35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Paris, France July 2004. (Will be published in JASR 2005)

[11] Dachev, Ts., B.T. Tomov, Yu. Matviichuk, Pl. Dimitrov, J. Space Radiation Dosimetry System for the Russian Segment of the International Space Station, Proceedings of the ET2000 Conference, Book 2, 97, 2000.

[12] Häder, Donat-P., and T.P. Dachev, Measurement of solar and cosmic radiation during spaceflight, Kluwer Press, Surveys in Geophysics, 24, 229-246, 2003.

[13] Spurny, F., Ts. Dachev, Long-Term Monitoring of the Onboard Aircraft Exposure Level With a Si-Diode Based Spectrometer, Adv. Space Res., 32, No.1, pp. 53-58,2003.

[14] Oulu Neutron monitor station data, http://cosmicrays.oulu.fi/

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

Counts

5200

5300

5400

5500

5600

5700

5800

5900

6000

6100

6200

Corr

ecte

d C

ounts

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Day of September 2005

Oulu NM data

Liulin-R data

Fig.15. Comparison of ALOMAR observatory Liulin-R data with

Oulu Neutron monitors data.

liulin type spectrometers: new developments

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