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Strange cuttoff in ion flux spectrum
I have been trying to set up some environments using the CRÈME tool, and I'm seeing some strange results for the GCR heavy ion flux. Specifically, there seems to be some sort of asymptote forming around an energy of around 200 MeV. I attempted to vary the altitude by 10 km in either direction, and also tried varying the inclination by a degree or two to see if this is a glitch of some sort, but that odd feature is not going away. Is it an actual physical effect, or is it some artifact/oddity of the models?
This is the result of ACRs (anomalous cosmic rays) which are not fully stripped of electrons. For your orbit, and others at low inclinations, the magnetosphere is able to shield the spacecraft from low-energy GCRs. That is why your environment has a cutoff at 300 MeV. The ACRs still penetrate and show up in the lower energy bins. You should find for higher inclinations, near the poles, there is no hard cuttoff for GCRs and the flux spectra will appear as a smooth distribution that we are accustom to seeing.
