A high time resolution 2 m 2 tracking detector, based on timing Resistive Plate Chamber (tRPC) cells, has been installed at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in order to improve our understanding of the cosmic rays arriving at the Earth's surface. Following a short commissioning of the detector, a study of the atmospheric temperature effect of the secondary cosmic ray component was carried out. To take into account this effect, temperature coefficients, W T (h), were obtained from cosmic ray data using a method based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results obtained show good agreement with the theoretical expectation. The method successfully removes the correlation present between the different atmospheric layers, which would be dominant otherwise. We briefly describe the initial calibration and pressure correction procedures, essential to isolate the temperature effect. Overall, the measured cosmic ray rate displays the expected anticorrelation with the effective atmospheric temperature, through the coefficient α T = −0.279±0.051%/K. Rates follow the seasonal variations, and unusual short-term events are clearly identified too.
The TRISTAN detector. Cosmic ray survey between latitudes 38ºN and 53ºS along the Atlantic Ocean D. García-Castro * on behalf of the TRISTAN Collaboration
In 2018-2019 a cosmic-ray latitude survey at sea level was performed by the TRISTAN detector, an autonomous system composed by three planes of RPCs (0120 × 15 cm2). The detector made a two-way journey on board of the Spanish vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa between Vigo (Spain) and Punta Arenas (Chile), measuring continuously the cosmic-ray rate throughout the Atlantic crossing. In this work, we present the results of the first journey, correlating the obtained variation of the cosmic-ray rate with the vertical cutoff rigidity, as well as presenting some details of the detector and its autonomous DAQ system used during the campaign.
† Thanks to project CTM2016-77325-C2-1-P and CTM2016-77325-C2-2-P funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and by the European Regional Development Fund, FEDER.
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