The High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment has observed the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin suppression (called the GZK cutoff) with a statistical significance of five standard deviations. HiRes' measurement of the flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays shows a sharp suppression at an energy of 6 x 10(19) eV, consistent with the expected cutoff energy. We observe the ankle of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum as well, at an energy of 4 x 10(18) eV. We describe the experiment, data collection, and analysis and estimate the systematic uncertainties. The results are presented and the calculation of the statistical significance of our observation is described.

The composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is measured with the High Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic-ray observatory data using the X max technique. Data were collected in stereo between 1999 November and 2001 September. The data are reconstructed with well-determined geometry. Measurements of the atmospheric transmission are incorporated in the reconstruction. The detector resolution is found to be 30 g cm À2 in X max and 13% in energy. The X max elongation rate between 10 18.0 and 10 19.4 eV is measured to be 54:5 AE 6:5 stat ð Þ AE 4:5 sys ð Þg cm À2 per decade. This is compared with predictions using the QGSJet01 and SIBYLL 2.1 hadronic interaction models for both protons and iron nuclei. CORSIKA-generated extensive air showers are incorporated directly into a detailed detector Monte Carlo program. The elongation rate and the X max distribution widths are consistent with a constant or slowly changing and predominantly light composition. A simple model containing only protons and iron nuclei is compared with QGSJet and SIBYLL. The best agreement between the model and the data is for 80% protons for QGSJet and 60% protons for SIBYLL. Subject headingg s: acceleration of particles -cosmic rays -large-scale structure of universe

We report studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray composition via analysis of depth of air shower maximum (X(max)), for air shower events collected by the High-Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) observatory. The HiRes data are consistent with a constant elongation rate d/d[log(E)] of 47.9+/-6.0(stat)+/-3.2(syst) g/cm2/decade for energies between 1.6 and 63 EeV, and are consistent with a predominantly protonic composition of cosmic rays when interpreted via the QGSJET01 and QGSJET-II high-energy hadronic interaction models. These measurements constrain models in which the galactic-to-extragalactic transition is the cause of the energy spectrum ankle at 4x10(18) eV.

[1] Considerable uncertainties remain in the global pattern of diurnal variation in stratospheric ozone, particularly lower to middle stratospheric ozone, which is the principal contributor to total column ozone. The Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave LimbEmission Sounder (SMILES) attached to the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) on board the International Space Station (ISS) was developed to gather high-quality global measurements of stratospheric ozone at various local times, with the aid of superconducting mixers cooled to 4K by a compact mechanical cooler. Using the SMILES dataset, as well as data from nudged chemistry-climate models (MIROC3.2-CTM and SD-WACCM), we show that the SMILES observational data have revealed the global pattern of diurnal ozone variations throughout the stratosphere. We also found that these variations can be explained by both photochemistry and dynamics. The peak-to-peak difference in the stratospheric ozone mixing ratio (total column ozone) reached 8% (1%) over the course of a day. This variation needs to be considered when merging ozone data from different satellite measurements and even from measurements made using one specific instrument at different local times.

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