KCDC, the KASCADE Cosmic-ray Data Centre, is a web portal, where data of astroparticle physics experiments will be made available for the interested public. The KASCADE experiment, financed by public ...money, was a large-area detector for the measurement of high-energy cosmic rays via the detection of air showers. KASCADE and its extension KASCADE-Grande stopped finally the active data acquisition of all its components including the radio EAS experiment LOPES end of 2012 after more than 20 years of data taking. In a first release, with KCDC we provide to the public the measured and reconstructed parameters of more than 160 million air showers. In addition, KCDC provides the conceptional design, how the data can be treated and processed so that they are also usable outside the community of experts in the research field. Detailed educational examples make a use also possible for high-school students and early stage researchers.
New data on the muon/electron ratio derived from the KASCADE extensive air shower experiment are presented. This ratio is known to be the most sensitive parameter in the determination of the mass of ...the primary particle when using ground array data. The particle numbers are measured with the KASCADE array comprising 500
m
2 of ε/γ- and 620
m
2 of
μ- detectors. The primary mass is inferred on an event-by-event basis by comparing the experimental data to corresponding EAS simulations. We observe a change towards a heavier composition with increasing energy above the knee. The sensitivity of this result to the specific hadronic interaction model employed in the simulations (e.g. VENUS and QGSJET) is discussed.
One of the main aims of the LOPES experiment was the evaluation of the absolute amplitude of the radio signal of air showers. This is of special interest since the radio technique offers the ...possibility for an independent and highly precise determination of the energy scale of cosmic rays on the basis of signal predictions from Monte Carlo simulations. For the calibration of the amplitude measured by LOPES we used an external source. Previous comparisons of LOPES measurements and simulations of the radio signal amplitude predicted by CoREAS revealed a discrepancy of the order of a factor of two. A re-measurement of the reference calibration source, now performed for the free field, was recently performed by the manufacturer. The updated calibration values lead to a lowering of the reconstructed electric field measured by LOPES by a factor of \(2.6 \pm 0.2\) and therefore to a significantly better agreement with CoREAS simulations. We discuss the updated calibration and its impact on the LOPES analysis results.
Czech.J.Phys. 56 (2006) A161-A172 At high energy, cosmic rays can only be studied by measuring the extensive
air showers they produce in the atmosphere of the Earth. Although the main
features of air ...showers can be understood within a simple model of successive
interactions, detailed simulations and a realistic description of particle
production are needed to calculate observables relevant to air shower
experiments. Currently hadronic interaction models are the main source of
uncertainty of such simulations. We will study the effect of using different
hadronic models available in CORSIKA and CONEX on extensive air shower
predictions.
LOPES was a digital antenna array detecting the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. The calibration of the absolute amplitude scale of the measurements was done using an external, commercial ...reference source, which emits a frequency comb with defined amplitudes. Recently, we obtained improved reference values by the manufacturer of the reference source, which significantly changed the absolute calibration of LOPES. We reanalyzed previously published LOPES measurements, studying the impact of the changed calibration. The main effect is an overall decrease of the LOPES amplitude scale by a factor of \(2.6 \pm 0.2\), affecting all previously published values for measurements of the electric-field strength. This results in a major change in the conclusion of the paper 'Comparing LOPES measurements of air-shower radio emission with REAS 3.11 and CoREAS simulations' published in Astroparticle Physics 50-52 (2013) 76-91: With the revised calibration, LOPES measurements now are compatible with CoREAS simulations, but in tension with REAS 3.11 simulations. Since CoREAS is the latest version of the simulation code incorporating the current state of knowledge on the radio emission of air showers, this new result indicates that the absolute amplitude prediction of current simulations now is in agreement with experimental data.
The scope of these two volumes includes not only dealing with professional astronomical data from the collecting instruments (ground-based and space-borne) to the users / researchers, but also ...publishing, education and public outreach. In short, the information flow in astronomy is thus illustrated from sources (cosmic objects) to end (mankind's knowledge). The experts contributing to this book have done their best to write in a way understandable to readers not necessarily hyperspecialized in astronomy while providing specific detailed information, as well as plenty of pointers and bibliographic elements. Especially enlightening are some 'lessons learned' sections.
The shape and composition of the primary spectrum of cosmic rays are key elements to understand the origin, acceleration and propagation of the Galactic cosmic rays. Besides the well known knee and ...ankle features, the recent results of KASCADE-Grande indicate that the measured energy spectrum exhibits also a less pronounced but still clear deviation from a single power law between the knee and the ankle, with a spectral hardening at 2 × 1016 eV and a steepening at 1017 eV. The average mass composition gets heavier after the knee till 1017 eV where a bending of the heavy component is observed. An indication of a hardening of the light component just above 1017 eV has been measured as well. In this paper the major results obtained so far by the KASCADE-Grande experiment are reviewed.
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