Proton monitor Las Dos Torres: First intercomparison of in-orbit results

The proton monitor on board NANOSAT 1B - Las Dos Torres (translated, The Two Towers) - and its preliminary results after two years in orbit are presented. This satellite was fully developed by INTA (National Institute of Aerospace Technique, Spain) and was launched on the 29
^th
of July, 2009. The instrument includes two stacks of radiation sensing elements: the `dark' and `light' towers. The displacement damage was measured, both through the increase of a photodiode dark current (`dark tower'), and the decrease of the photocurrent signal in a photodiode optically linked to an IRED (`light tower'). The instrument was also designed to monitor the ionization current of the photodiodes and it can monitor variations in the proton flux in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).