2020/09/11 by Kasper van Dam, van Dam, K., B. Van Eijk +3
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Precipitation Measurement and Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2009.05308
openalex publication_date 2020/09/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The high school project on astrophysics research with cosmics (HiSPARC) employs a large number of small detection stations that sample the footprint of extensive cosmic ray air showers. The majority of these stations has two 0.5 \si\meter\squared scintillation detectors. A new method is presented which enables probing the cosmic ray flux with a single two-scintillator station in five energy decades at 1012, 1013, 1014, 1015 and 1016 eV. The method is based on the energy dependence of the distribution of the number of particles passing through a single detector. A relatively short data taking period of approximately one month is sufficient to probe this energy range. The flux values agree well with measurements by other experiments. For the first time, the cosmic ray flux at 1012 and 1013 eV is derived at sea level.