370 research outputs found
Radio Detection of Cosmic Ray Air Showers with Codalema
Studies of the radio detection of Extensive Air Showers is the goal of the
demonstrative experiment CODALEMA. Previous analysis have demonstrated that
detection around eV was achieved with this set-up. New results
allow for the first time to study the topology of the electric field associated
to EAS events on a event by event basis.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures Proceedings of the Rencontres de Moriond, Very
High Energy Phenomena in the Universe, La Thuile, Italy (March 12-19, 2005
Radio Jupiter after Voyager: An overview of the Planetary Radio Astronomy observations
Jupiter's low frequency radio emission morphology as observed by the Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) instrument onboard the Voyager spacecraft is reviewed. The PRA measurement capabilities and limitations are summarized following over two years of experience with the instrument. As a direct consequence of the PRA spacecraft observations, unprecedented in terms of their sensitivity and frequency coverage, at least three previous unrecognized emission components were discovered: broadband and narrow band kilometric emission and the lesser arc decametric emission. Their properties are reviewed. In addition, the fundamental structure of the decameter and hectometer wavelength emission, which is believed to be almost exclusively in the form of complex but repeating arc structures in the frequency time domain, is described. Dramatic changes in the emission morphology of some components as a function of Sun-Jupiter-spacecraft angle (local time) are described. Finally, the PRA in suit measurements of the Io plasma torus hot to cold electron density and temperature ratios are summarized
Radio pulses from cosmic ray air showers - Boosted Coulomb and Cherenkov fields
High-energy cosmic rays passing through the Earth's atmosphere produce
extensive showers whose charges emit radio frequency pulses. Despite the low
density of the Earth's atmosphere, this emission should be affected by the air
refractive index because the bulk of the shower particles move roughly at the
speed of radio waves, so that the retarded altitude of emission, the
relativistic boost and the emission pattern are modified. We consider in this
paper the contribution of the boosted Coulomb and the Cherenkov fields and
calculate analytically the spectrum using a very simplified model in order to
highlight the main properties. We find that typically the lower half of the
shower charge energy distribution produces a boosted Coulomb field, of
amplitude comparable to the levels measured and to those calculated previously
for synchrotron emission. Higher energy particles produce instead a
Cherenkov-like field, whose amplitude may be smaller because both the negative
charge excess and the separation between charges of opposite signs are small at
these energies.Comment: 10 figures - Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Radio Detection of Extensive Air Showers with CODALEMA
The principle and performances of the CODALEMA experimental device, set up to
study the possibility of high energy cosmic rays radio detection, are
presented. Radio transient signals associated to cosmic rays have been
identified, for which arrival directions and shower's electric field topologies
have been extracted from the antenna signals. The measured rate, about 1 event
per day, corresponds to an energy threshold around 5.10^16 eV. These results
allow to determine the perspectives offered by the present experimental design
for radiodetection of UHECR at a larger scale.Comment: 4 pages and 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 29th ICRC,
Pune (2005
A broadband FFT spectrometer for radio and millimeter astronomy
The core architecture, tests in the lab and first results of a Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT) spectrometer are described. It is based on a commercially
available fast digital sampler (AC240) with an on-board Field Programmable Gate
Array (FPGA). The spectrometer works continuously and has a remarkable total
bandwidth of 1 GHz, resolved into 16384 channels. The data is sampled with 8
bits, yielding a dynamic range of 48 dB. An Allan time of more than 2000 s and
an SFDR of 37 dB were measured. First light observations with the KOSMA
telescope show a perfect spectrum without internal or external spurious
signals.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres
Radiodetection of Cosmic Ray Extensive Air Showers
We present the characteristics and performance of a demonstration experiment
devoted to the observation of ultra high- energy cosmic ray extensive air
showers using a radiodetection technique. In a first step, one antenna narrowed
band filtered acting as trigger, with a 4 threshold above sky
background-level, was used to tag any radio transient in coincidence on the
antenna array. Recently, the addition of 4 particle detectors has allowed us to
observe cosmic ray events in coincidence with antennas
Radio Detection of Cosmic Ray Extensive Air Showers: present status of the CODALEMA experiment
Data acquisition and analysis for the CODALEMA experiment, in operation for
more than one year, has provided improved knowledge of the characteristics of
this new device. At the same time, an important effort has been made to develop
processing techniques for extracting transient signals from data containing
interference.Comment: september 200
Planetary radio astronomy observations from Voyager-2 near Saturn
Voyager-2 planetry radio astronomy measurements obtained near Saturn are discussed. They indicate that Saturnian kilometric radiation is emitted by a strong, dayside source at auroral latitudes in the northern hemisphere and by a weaker (by more than an order of magnitude) source at complementary latitudes in the southern hemisphere. These emissions are variable both due to Saturn's rotation and, on longer time scales, probably due to influences of the solar wind and the satellite Dione. The Saturn electrostatic discharge bursts first discovered by Voyager-1 and attributed to emissions from the B-ring were again observed with the same broadband spectral properties and a 10(h)11(m) + or - 5(m) episodic recurrence period but with an occurrence frequency of only of about 30 percent of that detected with Voyager-1. During the crossing of the ring plane at a distance of 2.88 R sub S, an intense noise event is interpreted to be consequence of the impact/vaporization/ionization of charged micron-size G-ring particles distributed over a total vertical thickness of about 1500 km
Voyager spacecraft radio observations of Jupiter: Initial cruise results
Jupiter's low-frequency radio emission were detected by the planetary radio astronomy instruments onboard the two Voyager spacecraft. The emission is surprisingly similar in morphology but opposite in polarization to the high-frequency Jovian radio noise that were observed with ground-based telescopes for more than two decades. Several possible explanations for the behavior of the low-frequency emission are examined, but none of them is completely satisfactory
The chemical diversity of comets
A fundamental question in cometary science is whether the different dynamical
classes of comets have different chemical compositions, which would reflect
different initial conditions. From the ground or Earth orbit, radio and
infrared spectroscopic observations of a now significant sample of comets
indeed reveal deep differences in the relative abundances of cometary ices.
However, no obvious correlation with dynamical classes is found. Further
results come, or are expected, from space exploration. Such investigations, by
nature limited to a small number of objects, are unfortunately focussed on
short-period comets (mainly Jupiter-family). But these in situ studies provide
"ground truth" for remote sensing. We discuss the chemical differences in
comets from our database of spectroscopic radio observations, which has been
recently enriched by several Jupiter-family and Halley-type comets.Comment: In press in Earth, Moon and Planets (proceedings of the workshop
"Future Ground-based Solar System Research: Synergies with Space Probes and
Space Telescopes", Portoferraio, Isola d'Elba, Livorno (Italy), 8-12
September 2008). 6 pages with 2 figure
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