Local atmospheric electricity and its possible application in high energy cosmic ray air shower detection

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6712491

Chen, Chuxing

Near ground atmospheric electricity was studied experimentally. The main objective was to gain more understanding of this particular aspect of atmospheric phenomena, while testing the possible application to cosmic ray research. The results in atmospheric electricity show that there are certain patterns in ion grouping such as the size and lifetime. The average lifetime of ion group is 0.7 seconds and the average size is about 10 meters at our experimental site. Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers should create sizable slow atmospheric electric pulses according to theoretical calculations. Preliminary studies on air showers with total particle number N equal or greater than 10(exp 5) (10(exp 15) eV) have yielded strong evidence that slow atmospheric current pulses are associated with air showers. The theory and the experiment agree with each other fairly well when averaged over large numbers of events. With the current experimental arrangement, when the air shower exceeds a certain size, the system response saturates. Therefore it is extremely desirable in future research that the counter array be designed for a much higher threshold level, since this prototype experiment indicates that interesting data would be obtained. Another reason for further experimental research being directed toward ultrahigh energy, and higher, is to establish a calibration of the slow atmospheric electric signals generated by cosmic rays as a function of primary cosmic ray energy and core location. This type of slow atmospheric electric signal, if fully understood and calibrated, offers a new and potentially less expensive technique to observe ultrahigh energy cosmic ray events, which hold some fundamental keys to the knowledge of the universe on a large scale.

• Research Organization: Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6712491
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640101* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmic Radiation
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CALIBRATION
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC SHOWERS
ELECTRIC CHARGES
ENERGY SPECTRA
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MEASURING METHODS
RADIATIONS
SECONDARY COSMIC RADIATION
SHOWERS
SPECTRA