COSTEP - COMPREHENSIVE SUPRATHERMAL AND ENERGETIC PARTICLE ANALYZER

The COSTEP experiment on SOHO forms part of the CEPAC complex of instr uments that will perform studies of the suprathermal and energetic par ticle populations of solar, interplanetary, and galactic origin. Speci fically, the LION and EPHIN instruments are designed to use particle e missions from the Sun for several species (electrons, protons, and hel ium nuclei) in the energy range 44 keV/particle to > 53 MeV/n as tools to study critical problems in solar physics as well as fundamental pr oblems in space plasma and astrophysics. Scientific goals are presente d and a technical description is provided of the two sensors and the c ommon data processing unit. Calibration results are presented which sh ow the ability of LION to separate electrons from protons and the abil ity of EPHIN to obtain energy spectra and achieve isotope separation f or light nuclei. A brief description of mission operations and data pr oducts is given.