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.
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<X(max)>/dlog(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.
We describe the dayside cloud top structure of Venus as retrieved from 93 images acquired at a wide variety of solar phase angles (0–120°) using the 2.02-μm channel of the 2-μm camera (IR2) onboard ...the Venus orbiter, Akatsuki, from April 4 to May 25, 2016. Since the 2.02-μm channel is located in a CO2 absorption band, the sunlight reflected from Venus allowed us to determine the cloud top altitude corresponding to unit aerosol optical depth at 2.02 μm. First, the observed solar phase angle dependence and the center-to-limb variation of the reflected sunlight in the region equatorward of 30° were used to construct a spatially averaged cloud top structure characterized by cloud top altitude zc, Mode 2 modal radius rg,2, and cloud scale height H, which were 70.4 km, 1.06 μm, and 5.3 km, respectively. Second, cloud top altitudes at individual locations were retrieved on a pixel-by-pixel basis with an assumption that rg,2 and H were uniform for the entire planet. The latitudinal structure of the cloud top altitude was symmetric with respect to the equator. The average cloud top altitude was 70.5 km in the equatorial region and showed a gradual decrease of ~2 km by the 45° latitude. It rapidly dropped at latitudes of 50–60° and reached 61 km in latitudes of 70–75°. The average cloud top altitude in the region equatorward of 30° showed negligible local time dependence, with changes up to 1 km at most. Local variations in cloud top altitude, including stationary gravity wave features, occurred within several hundreds of meters. Although long zonal or tilted streaky features poleward of ~45° were clearly identifiable, features in the low and middle latitudes were usually subtle. These did not necessarily appear as local variations at the cloud top level, where mottled and patchy UV patterns were observed, suggestive of convection and turbulence at the cloud top level.
•Dayside cloud top structure of Venus was investigated from Akatsuki/IR2 images.•Latitudinal structure of cloud top altitude was symmetric to the equator.•Cloud top altitude in low latitudes showed negligible local time dependence.•Local variations in cloud top altitude occurred within several hundred meters.•Cloud particle size and cloud scale height in low latitudes were also retrieved.
SKYNET and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) retrieved aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) values of four sites, Chiba (Japan), Pune (India), Valencia (Spain), and Seoul (Korea), were compared to ...understand the factors behind often noted large SSA differences between them. SKYNET and AERONET algorithms are found to produce nearly same SSAs for similarity in input data, suggesting that SSA differences between them are primarily due to quality of input data due to different calibration and/or observation protocols as well as difference in quality assurance criteria. The most plausible reason for high SSAs in SKYNET is found to be underestimated calibration constant for sky radiance (ΔΩ). The disk scan method (scan area: 1° × 1° area of solar disk) of SKYNET is noted to produce stable wavelength‐dependent ΔΩ values in comparison to those determined from the integrating sphere used by AERONET to calibrate sky radiance. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) difference between them can be the next important factor for their SSA difference, if AOTs between them are not consistent. Inconsistent values of surface albedo while analyzing data of SKYNET and AERONET can also bring SSA difference between them, but the effect of surface albedo is secondary. The aerosol nonsphericity effect is found to be less important for SSA difference between these two networks.
Key Points
Reasons for inconsistent SSAs between SKYNET and AERONET have been analyzed
Algorithm difference has a less important role for inconsistent SSAs
Inconsistent SSAs are primarily due to inconsistent sky radiances
Aerosols play an important role in the Earth's radiation budget through the reflection of incoming solar radiation and formation of cloud droplets working as cloud condensation nuclei. The ...understanding on aerosol optical properties in troposphere, especially their behavior near the ground level, is still insufficient for precise evaluation of their impact. Although a sunphotometer can provide the aerosol optical thickness, its application is limited to daytime under near cloud free conditions. A visibility meter, on the other hand, can give the value of visibility, but the operation wavelength is limited to a single wavelength, e.g. 875 nm. To attain the multi-wavelength observation of aerosol extinction coefficient near the surface level, here we propose the use of a four-color light emitting diode (LED) source emitting at 455, 530, 590, and 625 nm as a light source for the long-path measurement of aerosol extinction. A near-horizontal light path with a round-trip distance of around 630 m has been established inside the campus of Chiba University. A collimated light beam is produced with a 130 mm diameter telescope, and the reflected beam from a retro-reflector is detected using a 200 mm diameter telescope connected to a photodiode. A sinusoidal wave modulation is applied to the LED source, and the resulting modulated signal amplitude is detected and recorded using a digital oscilloscope (Iwatsu, DS-5614A). The results of the recent observation are discussed in conjunction with the concurrent records of a visibility meter (Vaisala, PWD52) and a nephelometer (TSI3563) that can measure the aerosol scattering coefficient.
Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder 2 (SMILES-2) is a satellite mission proposed in Japan
to probe the middle and upper atmosphere (20–160 km). The main instrument is composed of 4 K cooled ...radiometers operating near 0.7 and 2 THz.
It could measure the diurnal changes of the horizontal wind above 30 km, temperature
above 20 km, ground-state atomic oxygen above 90 km and atmospheric density near the mesopause, as well as abundance of about 15 chemical species.
In this study we have conducted simulations to assess the wind, temperature and density retrieval performance in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (60–110 km) using the radiometer at
760 GHz. It contains lines of
water vapor (H2O), molecular oxygen (O2) and nitric oxide (NO) that are the strongest signals measured with SMILES-2 at these altitudes. The Zeeman effect on the O2 line due to the geomagnetic field (B) is considered; otherwise, the retrieval errors would be underestimated by a factor of 2 above 90 km. The optimal configuration for the radiometer’s polarization is found to be vertical linear. Considering a retrieval vertical resolution of 2.5 km, the line-of-sight wind is retrieved with a precision of
2–5 m s−1 up to 90 km and 30 m s−1 at 110 km.
Temperature and atmospheric density are
retrieved with a precision better than 5 K
and 7 % up to 90 km (30 K and 20 % at 110 km).
Errors induced by uncertainties on the vector B are mitigated by retrieving it. The retrieval of B is described as a side-product of the mission. At high latitudes, precisions of 30–100 nT on the vertical component and 100–300 nT on the horizontal one could be obtained at 85 and 105 km (vertical resolution of 20 km).
SMILES-2 could therefore provide the first measurements of B close to the electrojets' altitude, and the precision is enough to
measure variations induced by solar storms in the auroral regions.
In a test experiment at the Final Focus Test Beam of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the fluorescence yield of 28.5
GeV electrons in air and nitrogen was measured. The measured photon yields ...between 300 and 400
nm at 1
atm and 29
°C are
Y
(
760
Torr
)
air
=
4.42
±
0.73
and
Y
(
760
Torr
)
N
2
=
29.2
±
4.8
photons per electron per meter. Assuming that the fluorescence yield is proportional to the energy deposition of a charged particle traveling through air, good agreement with measurements at lower particle energies is observed.
We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum above 10(17.2) eV using the two air-fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye observatory operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, ...phototube, and atmospheric calibrations, as well as the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the spectrum to a model consisting of galactic and extragalactic sources.
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