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The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) in Nebraska
Gregory SnowUNL Department of Physics and Astronomy
September 22, 2006
• Overview and status• Lessons learned in 6 years• Education and training benefits• Our new funding proposal (Looking for Advisory Panel Members )
CROP article in Lincoln Journal Star, 7 August 2003
A few facts
• Funded by $1.34 Million NSF grant, 2000-2007• Co-PIs Greg Snow and Dan Claes• 26 Nebraska and 5 Colorado schools enlisted and trained in summer workshops of duration 2-4 weeks, about 5 new schools per summer• Venture into Colorado was a joint effort by CROP, WALTA, ALTA• Hosted 2 one-day meetings each academic year for participants from all years to report results, exchange faulty equipment, receive equipment and software upgrades, refresh training or train new students• External evaluation of this period has shown that CROP has accomplished most of its educational and scientific goals listed in the original proposal• CROP has also served as a great training ground for staff (undergrad, grad students) at UNL
Highlighted squares = participating schools
The Chicago Air Shower ArrayThe Chicago Air Shower Array
• CROP uses retired detectors from the Chicago Air Shower Array• 1089 boxes each with:
• 4 scintillators and photomultiplier tubes (PMT)• 1 high voltage and 1 low voltage power supply
• Two removal trips (September 1999, May 2001) yielded over 2000 scintillator panels, 2000 PMTs, 500 low and power supplies
U.S. Army PhotoSeptember 30,
1999
The CROP team at Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) site
Equipment recovery trip to Dugway, Utah, May 2001
5 VoltDC power
To PCserial port
Four analogPMT inputs
Discriminatorthreshold
adjust
GPS receiverinput
Eventcounter
Programmablelogic device
Time-to-digitalconverters
CROP data acquisition electronics cardDeveloped by Univ. Nebraska, Univ. Washington, Fermilab (Quarknet)
• 43 Mhz (24 nsec) clock interpolates between 1 pps GPS ticks for trigger time• TDC’s give relative times of 4 inputs with 75 picosecond resolution
User-friendly, LabView-based control and monitoring GUI
Two detectorsfiring at thesame time
Data streamfor eachevent
Eventcounter
Elapsedrun
time
User-friendly, LabView-based control and monitoring GUI
Developed by CROP studentsJared Kite and Jason Keller
in collaboration with WALTA
Automated threshold scanfor discriminator settings
17 July 2000
Summer 2000 workshop
Summer 2001 Workshop
Summer 2002 workshop
Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesDetector assembly and testing
Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesOscilloscope and DAQ card lessons
Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesPractice experiments to be performed at school
Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesDetectors return to school
Detector set-ups at schools
“Telescope” set-ups forindoor experiments
• Rate vs. barometric pressure• Day-night variation• Rate vs. angle from zenith• Light attenuation vs. distance from PMT
Installation at Lincoln High School, August 2003
GPS receiver
Several school in process of moving to the roof after indoor experiements
Other Rooftop Installations
Some schools have installeddetectors on their rooftops
and are studying coincidencerates vs. separation
Summer 2005 1-week refresher workshop
• Over half the participating schools attended• New student (and teacher) training• Preparation for rooftop data taking
Omaha’s Creighton University Joined Us
Masters degree studentLyle Sass,
our “ambassador” toNE high schools
Fr. Tom McShanewith his
“Berkeley”CR detector
Visitors cementing ties to other projects
Visitors from HiSparc, Netherlands,and Turkey
Auger Observatorycollaborator
Dr. Pablo Bauleo,Colorado State Univ.
Morning classroom sessions
Dan explaining detection ofradiation with electroscopes
Presented abbreviated versionof our full classroom curriculum
Afternoon lab sessions
New students had exposureto full detector assemblyand testing procedures
Each school’s detector set ups exercised
Setting discriminator thresholdsand efficiency scans for high voltage
settings
Moving detectors outside for overnightair shower data taking run
Each school made new rooftop enclosures
Excellent extensive air showerdata taking run overnight
New enclosures making it to rooftops
Westside High SchoolOmaha, NE
Weights, important !!
Some lessons learned in 6 years
• Big variation among schools in independent activity/investigations during school year. Some real successes, some inactive sites
• Close contact very important during academic year
• Scheme for replacing/training new students as classes graduate important
• Classroom integration, affect on curriculum is not automatic. Scheme to guide this needed.
• Hardware and software delays create frustration and idleness
• Hard to recruit for long summer workshops
• High school schedules are packed, hard to get full participation in academic year Saturday meetings of all participants
Mount Michael High School “The Science Teacher”, November 2001
CROP research has been the basis for severalstudent science fair projects
that have placed highly in national competitions
Ben PlowmanLincoln High School
Study of light attenuation in CROP scintillators as a function ofdistance from the photomultiplier position
Nebraska’s 2006 PAEMST Science Teacher Award Recipient
Jim RynersonPhysics Teacher
Lincoln High SchoolCROP participant since 2001
Successes of CROP staff at UNL
CROP undergraduateKatie Everett
now in physics grad schoolUniversity of Buffalo
CROP undergraduatesAndy Kubik: Northwestern UniversityAndrea Fuscher: Vanderbilt University
Teachers College Masters DegreeStudent Tracy Evans
has gone on to high school science teaching in Nebraska
CROP undergrad Jason Kellernow in physics grad school
At UNL
Successes of CROP staff at UNL
Our first advanced degree
Xioashu XuM.S. degree in Statistics
August 2006
“Probability of Extensive Air Showers Based on
the Study of Accidental Coincidences in the Cosmic Ray Observatory Project”
• Main thrust: statewide growth to ~100 schools + continuous data-taking and analysis• State schools administered through 19 Educational Service Units• Present schools serve as “hubs” for expansion in each ESU• Train through regional workshops, 2-3 per summer
Submit renewal NSF proposal early late October 2006
Status of Argentina site• 1000 out of 1600 surface detectors installed making it the world’s largest array to date• 3 out of 4 fluorescence telescope buildings complete
The Pierre Auger Observatory
Cosmic ray air shower animation of an actual event
The Pierre Auger Observatory Grid of Surface Detectors
The Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector Building
Fluorescence detectors “look”through windows at night
Antenna for transmission
of data
“Standard”3,100 km2
10,000km2
15,000km2
Auger North
Colorado
Pump station mesa
Stulp Hill
Widener Hill
Black Butte
Pruitt Mound
HW 287
HW 116
Lamar
Springfield
Jim Cronin
We now have the equipment in Lamarfor one detector set-up
Lamar
Upcoming proposal for Phase II of CROP – statewide expansion – will include SE Colorado extension and stronger tie to Auger Observatory
CROP detectors already usedin Auger North outreach
F. Sarazin and G. Snowmounted an Auger
display with posters,brochures, Geiger
counters, scintillators.oscilloscopes, …
Regional science fairat Lamar Community College
May 2006
• I haven’t mentioned the great work Dan has led with CROP’s Colorado schools making measurements of muon backgrounds in the Henderson Mine as part of DUSEL/UNO development
• See Dan’s talk tomorrow morning
CROP
Pierre Auger northern hemisphere site insoutheast Colorado
SCRODSALTA
CHICOS
WALTA ALTA
NALTAThe North American Large-Scale Time-Coincidence
Array
http://csr.phys.ualberta.ca/nalta/• Includes links to individual project Web pages
TECOP
PARTICLE
Aiming toward a worldwide networkof cosmic ray detectors