Heavy ion measurement on LDEF

The Kiel Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) experiment M0002, mounted on experiment tray E6, was designed to measure the heavy ion environment by means of CR-39 plastic solid state track detectors. The detector stack with a size of 40x34x4.5 cu cm was exposed in vacuum covered by thermal protection foils with a total thickness of approx. 14 mg/sq cm. After etching small samples of the detector foils tracks with Z greater than or = 6 could be easily detected on a background of small etch pits, which were probably produced by secondaries from proton interactions. The LDEF orientation with respect to the magnetic field lines within the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is expected to be constant during the mission. Therefore, the azimuth angle distribution was measured on the detector foils for low energy stopping particles. All detected arrival directions are close to a plane perpendicular to the magnetic field line of -20 deg declination and -40 deg inclination at location 34 deg W and 27 deg S. Together with the steep energy spectrum, this spatial distribution close to the mirror plane in the SAA is an evidence that heavy ions were detected from a radiation belt population.