Topical Discussion Meeting - Harmonisation of SEP Data Calibrations (HSDC)

Ingmar Sandberg (SPARC); Piers Jiggens (ESTEC/ESA); Daniel Heynderickx (DH Consultancy), Juan Rodriguez (NOAA, CIRES)
Thursday 30/11, 15:00 - 16:15, Permeke

Comparisons and cross-calibration of in-situ Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) radiation data are of critical importance for improving the accuracy of specifications of the space environment, space weather predictions and the outputs of relative scientific studies. For scientists working on these topics the issues pertaining to the data processing are often not the subject of their work, but nonetheless they appreciate the usefulness of harmonised data sets with measurement artifacts removed and caveats identified.
We propose the seventh formal meeting of the Harmonisation of SEP Data Calibrations (HSDC) working group to be hosted in ESWW14. The focus of this group is on the rigorous analysis of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) measurements which includes protons, electrons and heavier ions. This area of research bridges the gap between instrument developers, who often possess essential information on the characteristic features of instruments, and radiation environment specialists, who understand the sensitivity of models to instrument response. The ultimate goal is the construction of SEP reference data sets with well-defined uncertainties emerged from the measurement process and the data post-processing. The reference datasets should be the result of widely accepted numerical techniques and should be ready for use by the scientific and space weather European and International communities. It should be underlined that the HSDC working group is not addressed only to the SEP community. The methods developed and the derived outputs have been proven to be vital for the radiation belt and galactic cosmic ray environment communities as well.
Attendees will be requested to briefly present (5-10 minutes) comparisons of data and their conclusions with significant time for discussions of key problem areas and possible solutions. The topics of interest will include cross-calibration techniques, data-cleaning, background subtraction and identification of caveats in particle radiation data sets. Data caveats include but are not limited to the saturation of scientific instruments and to the wide uncertainties on the response of radiation monitors that depend on spectral hardness.