EUSO-SPB1 mission and science

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 (EUSO-SPB1) was launched in 2017 April from Wanaka, New Zealand. The plan of this mission of opportunity on a NASA super pressure balloon test flight was to circle the southern hemisphere. The primary scientific goal was to make th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Peral Gochicoa, Luis del|||0000-0003-2580-5668, Rodríguez Frías, María Dolores|||0000-0002-2550-4462, Hernández Carretero, Jesús, Morales de los Ríos Pappa, José Alberto, Prieto Alfonso, Héctor Ildecar, Vicek, B., Ave Pernas, M.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)
Repositorio:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/67020
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/67020
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2023.102891
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Cosmic rays (329)
High-altitude balloons (738)
Air fluorescence
Extensive air showers
JEM-EUSO
Astronomía
Física
Astronomy
Physics
Descripción
Sumario:The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 (EUSO-SPB1) was launched in 2017 April from Wanaka, New Zealand. The plan of this mission of opportunity on a NASA super pressure balloon test flight was to circle the southern hemisphere. The primary scientific goal was to make the first observations of ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray extensive air showers (EASs) by looking down on the atmosphere with an ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence telescope from suborbital altitude (33 km). After 12 days and 4 h aloft, the flight was terminated prematurely in the Pacific Ocean. Before the flight, the instrument was tested extensively in the West Desert of Utah, USA, with UV point sources and lasers. The test results indicated that the instrument had sensitivity to EASs of EeV. Simulations of the telescope system, telescope on time, and realized flight trajectory predicted an observation of about 1 event assuming clear sky conditions. The effects of high clouds were estimated to reduce this value by approximately a factor of 2. A manual search and a machine-learning-based search did not find any EAS signals in these data. Here we review the EUSO-SPB1 instrument and flight and the EAS search.