Experiment data analysis report. OGO-A experiment no. 1
OGO-A scintillation counter to detect 3 to 90 MeV protons in solar cosmic rays
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OGO-A scintillation counter to detect 3 to 90 MeV protons in solar cosmic rays
Temporal variations of 100 keV to 1700 keV trapped protons from data recorded by scintillation counter on Explorer 26 - Jan. 29, 1965 - June 29, 1965
High energy X rays from Cygnus XR-1, Cassiopeia A and SN 1572 measured by balloon- borne scintillation counter
Isotopic composition of hydrogen and helium nuclei in low energy cosmic rays based on scintillation counter telescope data during balloon flights
Discussion on recent developments of organic scintillators includes studies of organic compounds that form glass-like masses which scintillate and are stable at room temperature, correlations between molecular structure of organic scintillators and self-quenching, recently developed fast scintillators, and applications of liquid-scintillation counters.
Development of sterilizable multiplier phototube for scintillation counter
Graphs depicting output of ion-electron scintillation counter flown on Explorer 12 satellite - August - December 1961
Solar X-ray events observed by scintillation counter telescope on OSO 3 satellite, discussing X ray spectra during burst initial and decay phases
Particle spectrometer for Apollo measurements of trapped protons and electrons, using directional telescope composed of solid state and scintillation counters
Quark search in cosmic radiation near sea level, using scintillation counter telescope
Versatile pulse amplifier for use with scintillation counters, surface barrier detectors, proportional counters or channel electron multipliers
Balloon X ray astronomy techniques and observations, noting collimated scintillation counter instrumentation and PCM telemetry
An apparatus has been designed and is being fabricated to study the charge composition, fluxes, and energy spectra of light nuclei in the energy region from 1 GeV to 100 GeV. The apparatus essentially consists of an array of a large number of particle detectors operated in coincidence and serving as a charged particle telescope. A mosaic silicon semiconductor detector, a plastic scintillation counter and a lucite Cerenkov detector are used to measure the charges of the incident nuclei. Two one-inch thick CsI detectors are used to study low energy particles. An ionization spectrometer is utilized to measure primary energies in the 1 to 100 GeV energy interval. A gas Cerenkov counter is being designed to distinguish between electrons and protons. It is planned to calibrate the apparatus at an accelerator using particles of known energy.
An ionization spectrometer consisting of a sandwich of iron absorbers and plastic scintillation counters was used to measure the energy of pions and protons in the interval 10 to 1000 GeV. For the limited energy interval of 10 to 40 GeV, pions and protons were identified by an air cerenkov counter. Interactions in carbon were studied in a multiplate cloud chamber placed between the cerenkov counter and the spectrometer. Knowledge of these interactions were used in conjunction with a Monte Carlo simulation of the cascade process to study differences in the response of the spectrometer to pions and protons.
The detecting systems used in high energy astrophysics are generally more similar to particle detectors than to optical devices. The basic design of the gamma ray instrument depends on whether the energy range is below about 10 MeV and therefore in the region where the Compton effect predominates in the absorption of the gamma-rays, or above that energy where electron-positron pair production is most important. The most usual approach to the detector system in the lower of the two energy intervals is to use a scintillation counter in the center of the detector system to absorb the photons and permit a measure of their energy, and to surround it by another detector which is employed as an active anticoincidence shield to discriminate against charged particles. In the gamma-ray interval above about 10 MeV, the very low flux of gamma rays and the high particle background has directed the development of high energy gamma-ray telescopes towards complicated techniques and large detector arrays. As a result, several investigators have now turned to the spark chamber as the heart of a detector system. Generally, it is surrounded by an anticoincidence system and is triggered by a counter telescope.
Actively collimated balloon-borne scintillation counters employing a special phoswich anticoincidence technique were flown a total of 5 times from Palestine, Texas. Jupiter was observed for a total of 133 min, and an upper limit to the flux of X rays present at the observation time is .016 X rays/sq cm sec in the energy range 30-100 keV. Three separate calculations are made to estimate the flux of Jovian X rays at the earth. These estimates range from .000000001 to .1 X rays/sq cm sec in the energy range 30-100 keV. It is concluded that, since there was no decametric emission at the time of the flight and there had been no significant solar activity for several days prior to the flight, no X rays were being generated at the time of the observation.
Since the first balloon observation of the Crab Nebula balloon data have provided much information on the positions, spectra, time variability and pulsed nature of localized sources, and on the spectrum and isotropy of diffuse galactic and universal components. Measurements are limited to energies above about 20 keV by atmospheric attenuation at 2 to 3 g/sq cm depth and to below several hundred keV by detector sensitivity. Detectors usually consist of large-area Na I or Cs I scintillation counters with anticoincidence collimators for rejection of charged particles and scattered X-rays. Proportional counters are occasionally used at lower energies and solid-state detectors are used where extreme energy resolution is important. The instruments require a pointing capability on the order of 1.0 to 0.1 deg, depending on the collimator aperture. Digital data is either recorded on board or telemetered using a PCM technique.
In an attempt to reduce divergences among independent measurements of the electron spectrum above 10 GeV, electrons were detected with the aid of a large hodoscope which incorporates 8 trays of Geiger tubes and 10 scintillation counters into a calorimeter containing 33 radiation lengths of lead. This instrument was thoroughly calibrated up to 9 GeV with an electron synchrotron and was flown twice at a depth of 5 g/sq cm for a total of 30 hours at ceiling. Electron showers at 10 GeV are completely contained within the calorimeter where their ionization is sampled twelve times, and where hodoscope trays provide information on the geometrical distribution of shower particles. Electrons appeared in a histogram of number of events vs. a X2 measure of goodness of fit to electron shower curves as a clearly resolved peak standing well above the nuclear background. The initial ionization and the lateral spread of shower particles are consistent with those of calibration electrons. In contrast, the behavior of the nuclear continuum associated with minimum ionizing incident particles is different from that of calibration electrons but similar to that of nuclear events associated with incident helium nuclei. The differential electron spectrum from 10 to 100 GeV was obtained.