Energy and flux measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays observed during the first ANITA flight

H. Schoorlemmer, K. Belov, A. Romero-Wolf, D. García-Fernández, V. Bugaev, S. A. Wissel, P. Allison, J. Alvarez-Muñiz, S. W. Barwick, J. J. Beatty, D. Z. Besson, W. R. Binns, W. R. Carvalho, C. Chen, P. Chen, J. M. Clem, A. Connolly, P. F. Dowkontt, M. A. DuVernois, R. C. FieldD. Goldstein, P. W. Gorham, C. Hast, C. L. Heber, T. Huege, S. Hoover, M. H. Israel, A. Javaid, J. Kowalski, J. Lam, J. G. Learned, K. M. Liewer, J. T. Link, E. Lusczek, S. Matsuno, B. C. Mercurio, C. Miki, P. Miocinović, K. Mulrey, J. Nam, C. J. Naudet, J. Ng, R. J. Nichol, K. Palladino, B. F. Rauch, J. Roberts, K. Reil, B. Rotter, M. Rosen, L. Ruckman, D. Saltzberg, D. Seckel, D. Urdaneta, G. S. Varner, A. G. Vieregg, D. Walz, F. Wu, E. Zas

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The first flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment recorded 14 radio signals that were emitted by downward going cosmic-ray induced air showers. The dominant contribution to the radiation comes from the deflection of positrons and electrons in the geomagnetic field and is beamed in a cone around the direction of motion of the air shower. This radiation is reflected from the ice and subsequently detected by the ANITA experiment at a flight altitude of -36 km. In this contribution, we estimate the cosmic-ray energy of the 14 individual events and find a mean energy of 2:9-1018 eV. By simulating the ANITA flight, we calculate its exposure for ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and we estimate for the first time the cosmic-ray flux derived only from radio observations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number272
JournalProceedings of Science
Volume30-July-2015
StatePublished - 2015
Event34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2015 - The Hague, Netherlands
Duration: Jul 30 2015Aug 6 2015

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank Marianne Ludwig from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for helpful discussions and in the early days of this work. We are grateful to NASA , the U.S. National Science Foundation , the U.S. Department of Energy , and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility for their generous support of these efforts. We would like to extend our thanks to the 2006–2007 on-ice LDB and McMurdo crews for their support. Part of the research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. J.A.-M., W.R.C., D.G.-F., and E.Z. thank Ministerio de Economía (FPA2012-39489), Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CPAN Programme (CSD2007-00042), Xunta de Galicia (GRC2013-024), Feder Fundsand Marie Curie-IRSES/EPLANET (European Particle physics Latin American NETwork), and 7th Framework Program (PIRSES- 2009-GA-246806).

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