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Radioactivity induced by protons in sodium iodide scintillation crystals were calculated and directly measured. These data are useful in determining trapped radiation and cosmic-ray induced, background-counting rates in spaceborne detectors.
A candidate hodoscope uses arrays of scintillator fibers, followed by an image intensifier and imaging system such as that proposed for the X-ray shadowgraph. A literature search was performed to ascertain the experience of other workers with hodoscopes using this or similar principles. Calculations were performed to determine the feasibility of candidate systems and some laboratory experiments were performed to attempt to check these numbers.
High-energy X-ray spectra of the Crab Nebula, Cyg- XR-1, and Cen A were determined from observations with the scintillation spectrometer on board the OSO-8 satellite, launched in June, 1975. Each of these sources was observed over two periods of 8 days or more, enabling a search for day-to-day and year to year variations in the spectral and temporal characteristics of the X-ray emission. No variation in the light curve of the Crab pulsar was found from observations which span a 15-day period in March 1976, with demonstrable phase stability. Transitions associated with the binary phase of Cyg XR-1 and a large change in the emission from Con A are reported.
It is demonstrated that phase-difference scintillations measured with a coherent dual-frequency radio system such as that on Mariner 10 can be used to study the structure of density fluctuations in the solar wind covering a wider range of scale sizes than has ever been possible before. The Mariner 10 observations at solar elongations of 11.5 and 12.6 deg show that the density spectrum in the frequency range from 0.0001 to 0.5 Hz, which corresponds to the spatial wavenumber range of 2 millionths to 0.001 inverse km if the solar wind velocity is assumed to be 350 km/s, is approximately power-law and close to Kolmogorov (spectral index of 11/3). The results are consistent with direct spacecraft observations near earth and provide strong evidence that the density fluctuations are produced by turbulence. The potential and benefits of future extensive measurements are also discussed.
The volume includes papers on semiconductor radiation detectors of various types, components of radiation detection and dosimetric systems, digital and microprocessor equipment in nuclear industry and science, and a wide variety of applications of nuclear radiation detectors. Semiconductor detectors of X-rays, gamma radiation, heavy ions, neutrons, and other nuclear particles, plastic scintillator arrays, drift chambers, spark wire chambers, and radiation dosimeter systems are reported on. Digital and analog conversion systems, digital data and control systems, microprocessors, and their uses in scientific research and nuclear power plants are discussed. Large-area imaging and biomedical nucleonic instrumentation, nuclear power plant safeguards, reactor instrumentation, nuclear power plant instrumentation, space instrumentation, and environmental instrumentation are dealt with. Individual items are announced in this issue.
The problems of developing large-area, gas-scintillation proportional counters with high resolution are considered. It is found that simple large-area, parallel-grid proportional counters suffer from a variation in gain over the counter window. Some success has been achieved in overcoming this problem by focusing the charge cloud as it drifts into the multiplication region. Measurements are reported for various mixtures of argon and xenon as well as pure xenon.
High-energy X-ray spectra of the Crab Nebula, Cyg XR-1, and Cen A were determined from observations with the scintillation spectrometer onboard the OSO-8 satellite, launched in June 1975. Each of these sources was observed over two periods of 8 days or more, allowing a search for day-to-day and year-to-year variations in the spectral and temporal characteristics of the X-ray emission. No variation in the light curve of the Crab pulsar was found from observations which span a 15-day period in March 1976, with demonstrable phase stability. Transitions associated with the binary phase of Cyg XR-1 and a large change in the emission from Cen A are reported.
The diffracted field of a monochromatic plane wave was characterized by two complex correlation functions. For a Gaussian complex field, these quantities suffice to completely define the statistics of the field. Thus, one can in principle calculate the statistics of any measurable quantity in terms of the model parameters. The best data fits were achieved for intensity statistics derived under the Gaussian statistics hypothesis. The signal structure that achieved the best fit was nearly invariant with scintillation level and irregularity source (ionosphere or solar wind). It was characterized by the fact that more than 80% of the scattered signal power is in phase quadrature with the undeviated or coherent signal component. Thus, the Gaussian-statistics hypothesis is both convenient and accurate for channel modeling work.
Amplitude scintillation measurements were made simultaneously at 2.075 and 30 GHz on earth-space propagation paths over elevation angles in the range 0.4 to 44 deg. The experiment was performed as the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-6) was moved slowly from a synchronous position over Africa to a new synchronous position over the United States. The received signal, variance, level, covariance, spectra and fade distributions are discussed as functions of the path elevation angle. These results are also compared wherever possible with similar measurements made earlier at 20 and 30 GHz.
Results on the electron density spectrum, the random velocity and the mean velocity of the solar wind in the region from 5 to 100 solar radii are presented. Results are based on intensity scintillations of incoherent radio sources at different locations and different radio frequencies. The shape of the electron density irregularity spectrum is shown to be well modeled by a power law in wavenumber with a slope that abruptly steepens at higher wavenumbers. This two slope power law model is shown to have a break (defined as the wavenumber of the change of slope) that increases with decreasing distance from the Sun. The fractional random velocity is shown to be insignificant at distances of greater than 40 solar radii, but shows a steady increase with decreasing solar distance inside of 40 solar radii.
A thin-screen scintillation theory for a spherical wave is presented under the 'quasi-optical' approximation. The 'scattering angle', the 'observed angle', the intensity correlation function, and the temporal pulse broadening are calculated for the random wave. It is found that as the wave propagates outward away from the phase screen, the correlation scale of the intensity fluctuation increases linearly while the 'observed angle' decreases linearly. The calculations are carried out for both Gaussian and power-law spectra of the turbulent medium. The results are applied to an analysis of the scattering data for the Crab Nebula's radiation.
An improved large-area gas scintillation proportional counter has been built, suitable for use in X-ray astronomy. This counter employs electron focusing in a drift region to achieve uniform response. It is shown that a spectral resolution of 9.1% FWHM at 5.9 keV can be obtained over a useful area of 100 sq cm. It is demonstrated that signal rise-time discrimination can be used to reject non-X-ray background as efficiently as in ordinary proportional counters.
An improved large-area gas scintillation proportional counter has been built, suitable for use in X-ray astronomy. This counter employs electron focusing in a drift region to achieve uniform response. It is shown that a window area of 60 sq cm and a spectral resolution of 10% fwhm or better at 5.9 keV can be obtained.
Solar wind velocities measured by earth-orbiting spacecraft are compared with velocities determined from interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations for 1973, a period when high-velocity streams were prevalent. The spacecraft and IPS velocities agree well in the mean and are highly correlated. No simple model for the distribution of enhanced turbulence within streams is sufficient to explain the velocity comparison results for the entire year. Although a simple proportionality between density fluctuation level and bulk density is consistent with IPS velocities for some periods, some streams appear to have enhanced turbulence in the high-velocity region, where the density is low.
Synoptic interplanetary scintillation (IPS) index measurements at 34.3 MHz were obtained during May-December 1974 by means of the University of Iowa Cocoa Cross radiotelescope on a 'grid' of 150 selected radio sources covering solar elongation angles up to 180 deg. Over 80 of these sources displayed definite IPS, and the solar elongation dependence of the 34.3-MHz IPS index is consistent with the elongation of angle dependence measured at higher frequencies. Large enhancements of the IPS index are found to coincide with solar wind (proton) density increases greater than 10/cu cm. Correlation analysis confirms the IPS response to solar wind density and indicates that the events are due primarily to the corotating solar wind turbulent plasma structures which dominated the interplanetary medium during 1974.
Synoptic observations of the temporal power spectrum of interplanetary scintillations were made in the summer of 1976 on the University of Iowa's Cocoa Cross radio telescope and the University of Maryland's TPT array. Most of the observations were at large (larger than 40 deg) solar elongations. It was found that the power spectrum broadens when enhanced turbulence at the front of a high-speed solar wind stream sweeps over the earth. In the case with sufficient synoptic coverage, the broadening appeared to result from the relative closeness of the enhanced scattering region rather than from an increase in velocity. A small percentage of the spectra displayed two power law components with a plateau between them. These may result from a flattening in the spatial turbulence spectrum such as has been observed by spacecraft.
Power spectra of the flux variations in cosmic rays of energy greater than a few GeV are presented. The data were obtained at balloon altitudes (40-45 km) from two scintillation-type detectors flown for six hours from Palestine, Texas, on November 4, 1972. The large area detectors had effective count rates up to 2000 cps setting the Poisson noise level in the power spectra of the relative fluctuations at 0.001/Hz. The analysis was made on the singles rate of each of the counters as well as on the coincidence rates between them. In all cases, the spectra between 0.0001 and 0.002 Hz are power laws in frequency of the form f to the exponent negative gamma, where gamma is between 1.5 and 2.0. No significant peaks in the range 0.0001 to 0.01 Hz are observed.
In recent years much effort has been devoted to the development of large area gas scintillation proportional counters (GSPCs) suitable for use in X-ray astronomy. The paper deals with a low-energy GSPC for use in detecting sub-keV X-rays from cosmic sources. This instrument has a measured energy resolution of 85 eV (FWHM) at 149 eV over a sensitive area of 5 sq cm. The development of imaging capability for this instrument is discussed. Tests are performed on the feasibility of using an arrangement of several phototubes placed adjacent to one another to determine event locations in a large flat counter. A simple prototype has been constructed and successfully operated.