Real time monitoring of the radiation environment on the ISS with AMS-02

The International Space Station (ISS) is the most frequented place by human activity in space. The atmosphere is thin and the geomagnetic field offers a partial protection from radiation. Since the energetic spectrum of cosmic rays follows a decreasing power law, even though the highest energy portion is the most dangerous, it is scarcely populated: one of the most dangerous sources of radiation damage is represented by hadrons in the low end of the energetic spectrum, mainly constituted by Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer(AMS-02) is an experiment operating on the ISS since 2011, performing precision measurements of cosmic ray composition and flux. We report on a study to verify if the low latency trigger information of AMS-02 could be used to perform a now-cast and monitoring service of the radiation environment and solar activity outside the ISS. A data-driven confirmation of the capability for real-time identification of SEP events outside of the ISS has been achieved, using an algorithm capable of determining abrupt excesses in the AMS-02 trigger rate with respect to that expected in quiet conditions, simulating real time access to low-latency data directly from AMS-02.