We report cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra in energy ranges of 1È120 GeV nucleon~1 and 1È54 GeV nucleon~1, respectively, measured by a Ñight of the Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer (BESS) in 1998. The magnetic rigidity of the cosmic ray was reliably determined by highly precise measurement of the circular track in a uniform solenoidal magnetic Ðeld of 1 T. Those spectra were determined within overall uncertainties of^5% for protons and^10% for helium nuclei including statistical and systematic errors.

.12 e (in charge units) and ∼0.14 e for protons and helium nuclei, respectively, using two layers of silicon charge detectors. The measured proton and helium energy spectra at the top of the atmosphere are harder than other existing measurements at a few tens of GeV. The relative abundance of protons to helium nuclei is 9.53 ± 0.03 for the range of 1 TeV/n to 63 TeV/n. The ratio is considerably smaller than other measurements at a few tens of GeV/n. The spectra become softer above ∼20 TeV. However, our statistical uncertainties are large at these energies and more data are needed.

We measured low energy cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra in the kinetic energy range 0.215 -21.5 GeV/n at different solar activities during a period from 1997 to 2002. The observations were carried out with the BESS spectrometer launched on a balloon at Lynn Lake, Canada. A calculation for the correction of secondary particle backgrounds from the overlying atmosphere was improved by using the measured spectra at small atmospheric depths ranging from 5 through 37 g/cm 2 . The uncertainties including statistical and systematic errors of the obtained spectra at the top of atmosphere are 5-7% for protons and 6-9% for helium nuclei in the energy range 0.5 -5 GeV/n.

Primary and atmospheric cosmic-ray spectra were precisely measured with the BESS-TeV spectrometer. The spectrometer was upgraded from BESS-98 to achieve seven times higher resolution in momentum measurement. We report absolute fluxes of primary protons and helium nuclei in the energy ranges, 1-540 GeV and 1-250 GeV/n, respectively, and absolute flux of atmospheric muons in the momentum range 0.6-400 GeV/c.

No abstract

No abstract

Mechanistic principles from engineering, meteorology, and soil physics are integrated with ecology and physiology to develop models for prediction of animal behavior. The Mojave Desert biome and the desert iguana are used to illustrate these principles.A transient energy balance model for animals in an outdoor environment is presented. The concepts and relationships have been tested in a wind tunnel, in a simulated desert, and in the field. The animal model requires anatomical information and knowledge of the thermoregulatory responses of the animal. The micrometeorological model requires only basic meteorological parameters and two soil physical properties as inputs. Tests of the model in the field show agreement between predicted and measured temperatures above and below the surface of about 2 to 3°C.The animal and micrometeorological models are combined to predict daily and seasonal activity patterns, available times for predator-prey interaction, and daily, seasonal and annual requirements for food and water. It is shown that food, water and the thermal environment can limit animal activity, and furthermore, the controlling limit changes with season. Actual observations of activity patterns and our predictions show close agreement, in many cases, and pose intriguing questions in those situations where agreement does not exist. This type of modeling can be used to further study predator-prey interactions, to study how changes in the environment might affect animal behavior, and to answer other important ecological and physiological questions.

The energy spectrum of cosmic-ray antiprotons (p's) has been measured in the range 0.18 to 3.56 GeV, based on 458p's collected by BESS in recent solar-minimum period. We have detected for the first time a distinctive peak at 2 GeV ofp's originating from cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar gas. The peak spectrum is reproduced by theoretical calculations, implying that the propagation models are basically correct and that different cosmic-ray species undergo a universal propagation. Future BESS flights toward the solar maximum will help us to study the solar modulation and the propagation in detail and to search for primaryp components.PACS numbers: 98.70.Sa, 95.85.RyThe origin of cosmic-ray antiprotons (p's) has attracted much attention since their observation was first reported by Golden et al. [1]. Cosmic-rayp's should certainly be produced by the interaction of Galactic high-energy cosmic-rays with the interstellar medium. The energy spectrum of these "secondary"p's is expected to show a characteristic peak around 2 GeV, with sharp decreases of the flux below and above the peak, a generic feature which reflects the kinematics ofp production. The secondaryp's offer a unique probe [2] of cosmic-ray propagation and of solar modulation. As other possible sources of cosmic-rayp's, one can conceive novel processes, such as annihilation of neutralino dark matter or evaporation of primordial black holes [3]. Thep's from these "primary" sources, if they exist, are expected to be prominent at low energies [4] and to exhibit large solar modulations [5]. Thus they are distinguishable in principle from the secondaryp component.The detection of the secondary peak and the search for a possible low-energy primaryp component have been difficult to achieve, because of huge backgrounds and the extremely small flux especially at low energies. The first [1] and subsequent [6] evidence for cosmic-rayp's were reported at relatively high energies, where it was not possible to positively identify thep's with a mass measurement. The first "mass-identified" and thus unambiguous detection of cosmic-rayp's was performed by BESS '93 [7] in the low-energy region (4 events at 0.3 to 0.5 GeV), which was followed by IMAX [8] and CAPRICE [9] detections. The BESS '95 measured the spectrum [10] at solar minimum, based on 43p's over the range 0.18 to 1.4 GeV. We report here a new high-statistics measurement of thep spectrum based on 458 events in the energy 1