Implications of galactic and solar particle measurements on board interferometers for gravitational wave detection in space

Test-mass charging due to galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar energetic particles (SEPs) represents one of the major sources of noise for missions devoted to gravitational wave detection in space. Particle detectors on board future space interferometers will help in monitoring the test-mass charging process. Variations and fluctuations of GCRs and evolution of SEP events of different intensities are discussed here for the correlation of SEP radiation monitor observations and particle fluxes charging the test masses.We consider the performance of the radiation monitors designed for the LISA Pathfinder mission for the results presented in this work. We point out that in addition to the primary use of test-mass charging monitoring, particle detectors on board space interferometers will naturally provide SEP observations at different intervals in heliolongitude and distances from Earth for space weather applications.