RM's+Cosmic+Ray+Question

CRD Sensitivity Project Page

When cosmic rays - a combination of hydrogen and helim nuclei, electrons, and neutrons that exist in outer space - enter the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds, they collide with mostly oxygen and nitrogen nuclei, forming muons. Muons have a negative charges, like electrons, but have about 210 times the mass of an electron. But, because muons and electrons have like charages, they repel each other, especially in close distances. Thus, I wished to know whether the interaction of the electrons and muons in the Earth's atmosphere showed a direct or inverse relationship between the cosmic ray flux (where muons come from) and the TEC (Total Electron Count).
 * Background**

So, my hypothesis for this project is that when a surge in the cosmic ray flux occurs, I expect the TEC level to drop, and when the cosmic ray flux decreases, I expect the TEC level to rise.
 * Hypothesis**

First, as we cannot obtain TEC data for days prior to the past 24 hours, it is difficult for us to conduct an actual experiment. Therefore, I will explain what I would do, had I obtained the necessary data.
 * Procedure**

In order to research this hypthesis, I would conduct separate studies in different geographical regions over the course of May 2008, such as in the northeastern, southeastern, northwestern, southwestern, middle-north, and middle-south regions of the United States.. By comparing the cosmic ray flux data over the month with the TEC level in that region, I could observe the trends in the individual regions and then compare these trends to discover a national trend in the relationship between the TEC and cosmic ray flux data. The advantage of conducting the same experiment in separate regions include having more data, which can limit the influence of another variable that may skew the data. Additionally, since I would be comparing data from regions all over the United States, factors such as barometric pressure and weather are also limited, because these factors would be averaged and neutralized in a national trend.

There are several detectors with data from May 2008. Below, a few of these schools are listed.

BYU- Hawaii Castro Valley High School-CA Fermilab Test Array-IL Freehold High School- NJ Hamilton High School- IL Heisenberg Gymnasium- Hamburg, Germany LBNL- CA Lexington High School- SC Norfolk Christian High School-VA (not in past week) Oakton High School-VA (not in past week) Patslab Fermilab- IL (not in past week) Plainfield High School- IL (not in past week) Punahou High School- HI Richard Montgomery High School- MD Shizuoka Kita High School- Japan (not in past week) Shoreham-Wading River High School- NY (not in past week)
 * Detectors** **with May 2008 Data** (to be compared to past 24 hour TEC on Google Earth). The full list can be found [|here].

From this list, and the few other schools that have data from May, 2008, I would conduct the separate studies in the specified regions over the course of the month. I would probably repeat the procedure using March and April, June and July, or April and June, in order to obtain more data and reduce the effects of any outliers.

Next, I would find the days in May that experienced the highest and lowest cosmic ray fluxes on the specific detectors that I chose. Then, I would compare the data from those days (at those detectors) to the data obtained from the TEC count on those specific days, at those specific locations. Additionally, to include more data, I would record the weather at the detector locations. That information can be found [|here].

(However, the TEC data that we receive from the Google Earth animation is more qualitative than quantitative. Of course, it is color-coordinated, showing ranges of data. However, we have not come across //hard-core// numbers, which makes it a bit more difficult to produce a study. That is why I plan to research the days in the May that have the //highest// and //lowest// cosmic ray fluxes, which also come in ranges. Thus, I will be looking for average trends in the data. For an example of what the TEC data looks like, check below).

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As can be seen, there is a definite drop in the TEC level at night, compared to the daytime TEC level.

After obtaining the data, I would draw a conclusion on the relationship between the cosmic ray flux data and the TEC data. Basically, I would see whether the data had a direct or an inverse relationship. If the data produced a direct variation, then the negative charges from muons and electrons were not strong enough to repel each other. So, as muons decay into electrons and neutrinos, the increase in the level of muons would cause an increase in the level of neutrons. And a decrease in the level of muons caused a decrease in the level of electrons.
 * Analysis and Conclusions**

If the data had an inverse relationship, then the similar charges of muons and electrons were strong enough to influence a greater or smaller value in the TEC when the cosmic ray flux was smaller or greater, respectively.

However, if no relationship was discovered, then I conclude that the muons disintegrated //before// they reached the detectors and that the particles did not interact substantially. Muons are unstable particles, and have an average lifetime of 2.2 microseconds. After their short lifetime, they decay into electrons and neutrinos, and convert the rest of the energy into kinetic energy. This information was found [|here.] ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: THIS DEAD LINK IS A GOOD ILLUSTRATION OF WHY MORE THAN A HYPERLINK IS NEEDED. THE BASICS ARE A URL AND DATE ACCESSED; ADDING THE AUTHOR'S NAME GIVES CREDIT BEYOND THE EXPIRATION OF THE LINK. Another possibility, if no relationship was discovered, is that the TEC level was influenced by a force stronger than the cosmic ray flux, such as a possible explosion in space.