1. Development of Giant Air Shower in Earth’s Atmosphere

2. Primary cosmic ray Mostly muons, electrons and photons at Earth’s surface

3. A map of the northern Pierre Auger detector site in Millard County, Utah.

4. A map of the southern Pierre Auger detector site in Mondoza province, Argentina.

5. Pierre Auger, discoverer of cosmic ray air showers.

6. Victor Hess after his 1912 balloon flight, during which he discovered cosmic rays from space.

7. Two possible sources of cosmic rays Colliding galaxies Active galactic nucleus

8. Possible Source of Concident, Widely-Separated Showers: the GZ Effect (Gerasimova-Zatsepin) Cosmic ray iron nucleus Optical photon from the sun Earth’s Surface Nuclear fragments from photo-disintegration Watson and Medina-Tanco revisit this 1960-predicted phenomenon in astro-ph/9808033 Calculation for 6 × 10 17 eV Fe  Mn + proton Shower separations of 100’s to 1000’s of kilometers possible, dominated by deflections in interplanetary magnetic fields Rates not encouraging

9. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses 1600 particle detectors spaced uniformly over 3000 square kilometers to record cosmic ray air showers. On dark nights, sensitive light sensors observe the faint fluorescence caused by collisions of air shower particles with air molecules in the atmosphere.

10. “Air shower” of secondary particles formed by collisions with air molecules How a cosmic-ray air shower is formed and detected Primary cosmic ray (mostly protons) impinges on earth’s atmosphere from outer space Grid of particle detectors intercept and sample portion of arriving secondaries Number of secondaries related to primary cosmic ray energy Relative arrival time of secondaries tells incident direction

11. “Air shower” of secondary particles formed by collisions with air molecules How a cosmic-ray air shower is formed and detected Primary cosmic ray (mostly protons or light nuclei) impinges on earth’s atmosphere from outer space Grid of particle detectors intercept and sample portion of arriving secondaries Number of secondaries related to primary cosmic ray energy Relative arrival time of secondaries tells incident direction

13. The Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum

15. Counties and Congressional Districts in Nebraska

16. 24” Plastic scintillator Photomultiplier tube Schematic of typical CROP high-school set up (not to scale) Inventory of equipment at school 4 weather-proof enclosures for detectors 4 cosmic-ray detectors (polystyrene scintillator tiles and photomultiplier tubes) GPS receiver Power supply for detectors (not shown) Personal computer for data acquisition, monitoring, and data analysis with connection to Internet Triggering and data-acquisition electronics card connected to PC Software for PC Cables from rooftop detectors and GPS to PC GPS receiver Cables bring signals to PC Weather-proof detector enclosures PC inside classroom Cosmic ray detector inside each enclosure CASA counter

17. The CROP Advisory Panel  Professor Ronald Bonnstetter, Director of Secondary Science Education, University of Nebraska, Lincoln NE.  Dr. Susana Deustua, research astronomer at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and project scientist for the Hands-on Universe Project.  Dr. Ernest Malamud, senior scientist at Fermilab, founding director of SciTech hands-on science center, Aurora IL  Ms. Olivia Diaz, 1997-99 Executive Director of SciTech, Aurora IL.  Dr. Paul Mantsch, senior scientist at Fermilab, Project Director of Pierre Auger Observatory.  Ms. Mary Lou Pagano, high school math teacher, K -12 math dept. chair, Kansas City MO.  Mr. John Rogers, physics teacher Westside High School, Omaha NE.  Professor John Swain, physics professor, Northeastern University, Boston MA, and collaborator in the Pierre Auger Giant Air Shower Project.

18. Chicago Air Shower Array, Dugway, Utah 1089 boxes with 4 scintillators and tubes in each box 1 high voltage and 1 low voltage supply in each box G. Snow visited site on August 10, 1999, for logistics of removing approx. 25 boxes for first year of CROP Snow, Claes, 2 students filled Ryder truck Sept. 30 - Oct 2 and drove to Lincoln Univ. of Nebraska Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs paid for removal trip ($4000) Funding for removal expenses for subsequent CROP years requested in NSF Teacher Enhancement proposal Many thanks to the CASA collaboration!!!!

19. The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska USA Gregory Snow and Daniel Claes Principal Investigators Start-up support since 1994 has been obtained from: The University of Nebraska The NSF-funded Math and Science Initiative Chicago Air Shower Array (spare scintillators and PMTs) Fermilab (long-term loan of trigger electronics and power supplies for prototype work) Major funding proposal submitted in August 1999 to the NSF Teacher Enhancement Program $1 Million over 5 years High school teacher and student team workshops Learn physics of cosmic rays, extended air showers, particle detectors, data acquisition, data analysis, GPS time stamp, installation at school, sharing local data over Internet with other sites, career opportunities in science, emphasis on women, minority and rural participation A Model for Pierre Auger Education and Outreach

20. The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) THE IDEA Statewide outreach project which involves: Nebraska high school students High school teachers College undergraduates in studies of extended cosmic ray showers. Each participating high school has a stand-alone experiment. Retired CASA detectors in weather-proof enclosures on roof GPS receiver gives local time stamp for shower arrival PC inside school takes data at each site Student teams share data over Internet searching for time coincidences THE SCIENCE OF CROP Each school records building-sized showers -- plenty of rate. Neighboring schools in same city (Lincoln, Omaha) see coincidences from highest-energy showers -- low rate. Nebraska is 450 x 250 square miles -- schools separated by very large distances explore whether showers come in large, correlated bursts. That is, does the whole state of Nebraska ever light up? Eventually, integrate CROP data with Pierre Auger data!! (and data from other emerging school-based arrays)

21. CROP Cosmic Ray Observatory Project A high-school based mini-Pierre Auger Project Coarser array covering much larger area 450 miles 250 miles

22. The KASCADE experiment in Karlsruhe, Germany

23. The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska USA Gregory Snow and Daniel Claes Principal Investigators $1,342,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Teacher Enhancement program of the NSF NSF grant period: June, 2000 - May 2004 Additional funding needed for Short-term R&D to optimize the stand-alone experiment at each high school Hardware equipment needs for each high school to supplement detectors inherited from Chicago Air Shower Array experiment Longer-term funding to institutionalize the project after NSF funding runs out

24. The CROP team at Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) site, September 30, 1999 U.S. Army Photo

25. The CROP team at Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) site, September 30, 1999 U.S. Army Photo

26. The CROP team at Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) site, September 30, 1999 U.S. Army Photo

27. The CROP team at Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) site, September 30, 1999 U.S. Army Photo

28. Storage and staging area in Hamilton Hall basement Complete CASA boxes (four detectors inside) plus spare detectors Stacks of scintillator pieces without photomultiplier tubes CROP

29. 1999-2000 CROP Activities / Milestones Summer 1999, team of three undergraduates: Worked on CROP detector prototypes Scintillators and photomultplier tubes Data-acquisition card interfaced to PC GPS receiver and read-out Gathered materials for associated teaching modules Two students continue during academic year NSF Teacher Enhancement proposal submitted August 99 January 2000: notification of approval and funding $1,342,000 over 5 years Arrangement cemented with Chicago Air Shower Array Retired equipment offered free of charge First batch of CASA equipment removed Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 Several presentations made for recruitment of school teams First pilot schools identified Lincoln Northeast High School Lincoln High School

30. 1999 CROP Information and Recruitment Presentations Nebraska AAPT, Jan. 30, Millard West High School, Omaha Claes AP Physics readers, June 17, Nebraska Union, UNL Snow Nebraska AAPT, Oct. 23, Physics Dept., UNL Claes Lincoln Public Schools In-service Day, Oct. 25, Physics Dept., UNL Claes, Snow Nebraska Association of Physics Teachers, Oct. 30, Fremont, NE Claes

31. 15 complete CASA boxes from the field, each with 4 wrapped/sealed counters 4 mounted EMI photomultiplier tubes 1 low voltage, 1 high voltage supply in addition 19 spare counters with EMI tubes attached 95 covered panels of scintillator (no tubes) 52 spare (good?) photomultiplier tubes 27 spare low voltage supplies 40 spare high voltage supplies 4 boxes of black scintillation covers 5 unused empty station boxes 45 white vinyl weather-proof station covers Sufficient raw material on hand to equip >20 schools Inventory of Equipment from 1999 Recovery Trip to Chicago Air Shower Array Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah

32. James Cronin (Univ. Chicago) and Alan Watson (Univ. Leeds) Project Spokespersons Argentina Utah Detector Sites

33. The Pierre Auger Observatory uses 1600 particle detectors spaced uniformly over 3000 square kilometers to record cosmic ray air showers. On dark nights, sensitive light sensors observe the faint fluorescence caused by collisions of air shower particles with air molecules in the atmosphere.

35. The KASCADE experiment in Karlsruhe, Germany

36. Fluorescence Detectors Fly’s Eye II Dugway, Utah High-Res Experiment Dugway, Utah

37. The Alberta Large Area Time coincidence Array (ALTA) is a collaborative project, involving the University of Alberta and provincial high schools, to search for very large area (~30,000 km 2 ) correlations between the arrival times of cosmic ray showers observed at individual detector sites. Other Cosmic Ray Outreach Projects WAshington Large Area Time coincidence Array (WALTA) is a project to investigate the highest energy cosmic rays with the participation of middle an high school students and teachers throughout the Seattle area. ASPIRE: Astrophysics Science Project Integrating Research and Education http://sunshine.chcp.utah.edu

38. The North American Large-scale Time-coincidence Array Members of the Consortium ALTA (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) CHICOS (CalTech, UC/Irvine, and Cal State/Northridge, California, USA) CROP (University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA) WALTA (University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA)

39. ALTA Detector (School) Site Map Surrounding Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

43. Shmoos arrive at CalTech

44. Refrigerator cold CO 2 bubble (887 mph) 0.02 eV Room temperature nitrogen N 2 (1160 mph) 0.03 eV Atoms in sun’s MILLION DEGREE surface 0.50 eV Energy given to each single electron when accelerated by AA battery 1.5 eV Electrons accelerated by your television picture tube (traveling ~1/3 speed of light) 30,000 eV Fermi National Lab’s high energy protons 1,000,000,000,000 eV

45. Superball bounced over your house 4 x 10 17 eV Pitched baseball 4 x 10 20 eV Slammed hockey puck 1 x 10 21 eV Recall: 1 joule = 6.2 x 10 18 eV The highest energy Cosmic Rays are SUBATOMIC particles carrying the energy of MACROSCOPIC objects! 4 x 10 21 eV = 60 joules

46. The Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum FERMILAB’s protons Bounced Superball Pitched baseball Hockey Puck

47. The Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) in Japan World’s second-highest energy cosmic ray event Recorded December 3, 1993 Particles covered 4 km  4 km area 23 detector sites recorded coincident hits Plot indicates particle density at each location Radius of yellow circle = logarithm of number of particles recorded Primary energy 2  10 20 eV

48. The Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) in Japan 111 detector sites using scintillation counters Approx. 1 km spacing between sites Coverage about 100 square km

49. High Energy Cosmic Rays The Pierre Auger Project and The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) Gregory Snow Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska, USA Lincoln International School Buenos Aires, Argentina April 10, 2000 Outline Cosmic rays and extended air showers The Pierre Auger Project and similar experiments CROP in Nebraska Other cosmic ray education/outreach projects Conclusions http://www.auger.org http://www.physics.unl.edu/research/crop/crop.html

50. High Energy Cosmic Rays and The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) Gregory Snow Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska, USA Northeastern University Boston, MA April 26, 2000 Outline Cosmic rays and extended air showers The Pierre Auger Project and similar experiments CROP in Nebraska Other cosmic ray education/outreach projects Conclusions http://www.physics.unl.edu/research/crop/crop.html

51. The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) Conclusions CROP is underway in Nebraska Major funding has been secured from the National Science Foundation ($1,342,000 over 5 years) We look forward to: Doing exciting cosmic-ray research with CROP detectors Providing hands-on research experiences and involvement to high-school teachers and students throughout Nebraska and elsewhere Extensive use of the Internet / distance learning Stay tuned for news on our progress

52. Conclusions High schools across the country are becoming involved in frontier cosmic ray research CROP is underway in Nebraska Major funding has been secured from the National Science Foundation ($1,342,000 over 5 years) Parallel efforts are emerging in several locations in the U.S., Canada, and abroad The NALTA consortium has been formed for the sharing of expertise developed locally and the networking of detector arrays separated by long distances Stay tuned for news on our progress

53. The Pierre Auger Project The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) Conclusions The Pierre Auger project is underway in Argentina CROP is underway in Nebraska We look forward to: Doing exciting cosmic-ray research with the Pierre Auger and CROP detectors Providing hands-on research experiences and involvement to high-school teachers and students throughout Nebraska and elsewhere Stay tuned for more news on our progress

54. Cosmic Ray Mysteries The origin and acceleration mechanism for the highest-energy cosmic rays are unknown!! For E primary > 10 19 eV Primary particles must originate from closer than about 50 Megaparsecs (Mpc)  Otherwise lose energy interacting with ubiquitous 3 o Kelvin cosmic background radiation (photons) But there is no observed “source” within 50 Mpc of earth Reference distances: Diameter of Milky Way disk = 0.024 Mpc Distance to Andromeda galaxy = 0.6 Mpc

55. CROP Pierre Auger northern hemisphere site in Utah CROP-EastALTA CHICOS WALTA NALTA A growing, continent-wide consortium

56. State of Nebraska Pierre Auger northern hemisphere site in Utah

57. CROP 2000 July 17 - July 21 July 24 - July 28 July 31 - August 4 August 7 - August 11 Lincoln Northeast High School Physics Teacher: Kent Reinhard Students: Uyen Chu, Chris Esquibel, Michael Gallagher Science Focus Program, Zoo School, Lincoln Physics Teacher: De Tonack Students: Peter Jacobsen, Chris Schlitz, Ryan Tiedeman Marian High School, Omaha Physics Teachers: Bruce Esser, Sharon Genoways Students: Tracy Fendrick, Amanda Carney, Elizabeth Greer Mount Michael Benedictine High School, Elkhorn Physics Teacher: Michael Liebl Students: Jamie Antonelli, Sean Mahoney, Derek Streich Norfolk High School, Norfolk Physics Teacher: Dennis Miller Students: TBA Participating Schools, Teachers, and Students

58. The Muon Detector responds to significant cosmic ray events resulting from solar processes. These are mainly "Forbush" events in which there is a sharp reduction in cosmic ray intensity followed by a gradual return to earlier levels over a period of a few days. Suchevents can either be spotted by eye from the muon data or by the use of lists of such events found through the links. Students can search for such effects. Forbush events are more easily recognised if the significant effect of variations in atmospheric pressure is first removed. The figure shows the correlation between count rate and pressure for days 14 Dec to 19 Dec. There is a clear inverse relationship between pressure and the resulting count rate. We use an approximation to this of -0.2% count rate change per millibar for correcting our muon display University of Adelaide Cosmic Ray Experiments for Students http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/astrophysics/index.html

59. First Semester Studies at CROP Schools 1 11 3 2 22 33 With counters spread out in horizontal plane 3/4 and 4/4 coincidence rate vs. counter separation Optimization of counter geometry on school rooftops With 4 counters stacked in vertical telescope Coincidence rate vs. barometric pressure

63. The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) and Participatory Science Using the Internet Gregory Snow Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska, USA International Conference of the Learning Sciences Ann Arbor, Michigan June 14 - 17, 2000 Outline Cosmic rays and extended air showers CROP in Nebraska Specific uses of the Internet in CROP research Other cosmic ray education/outreach projects Conclusions http://www.physics.unl.edu/research/crop/crop.html

64. High Schools Join the Study of Extended Cosmic-Ray Air Showers Gregory Snow Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska, USA University of Washington Physics Department Colloquium Seattle, Washington November 27, 2000 Outline Introduction to Extended Cosmic-Ray Air Showers Overview of present and planned ground-based arrays CROP in Nebraska Other cosmic ray education/outreach projects The NALTA Consortium Conclusions

65. Specific Uses of the Internet Data Analysis Exchanging data sets to search for cosmic-ray time coincidences based on GPS time stamp Downloading, file management, running physics analysis programs, statistics, probability, reporting results Technical info for installation/operation at remote schools Step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting, frequently asked questions Crucial for expanding CROP around remote hubs High school curriculum lessons and supplements Level-appropriate presentations, references, useful links E-mail communication with project leaders Workshop organization Status at the school Specific problems to solve Informal communication among participants “Last night we recorded an energetic shower! Did you see one?”

66. High Energy Cosmic Rays and The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) Gregory Snow Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska, USA West Point High School West Point, Nebraska October 16, 2000 Outline Cosmic rays and extended air showers The Pierre Auger Project and similar experiments CROP in Nebraska Other cosmic ray education/outreach projects Conclusions http://www.physics.unl.edu/research/crop/crop.html

67. Education, Outreach, Public Relations Update PAO Collaboration Meeting November 13-17, 2000 Gregory Snow Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska, USA Malargüe 50th Anniversary parade Thursday, 11:00 a.m. Auger Central Campus Open House Thursday, 19:30 - 21:30 School visits in Malargüe Other talks Spanish “Cosmic Bullets” Update on high-school cosmic-ray projects CROP and NALTA consortium A.O.B.

68. Spanish Translation of “Cosmic Bullets” Information from Arturo Fernández “Ballas Cósmicas” First printing 1000 copies Revert Publishing Company

69. Curriculum Development CROP NSF grant disallows expenditures on curriculum development Separate proposal for curriculum developer Refine “scientist” modules Level-appropriateness Science standards Work with teachers, students, local science coordinators, CROP Advisory Panel CROP basing curriculum modules around lecture and lab topics from 2000 Summer Workshop Teachers have expresses interest in varied uses of curriculum materials One-two weeks of cosmic rays, detectors, and CROP in physics class Short overview for physics class if only small group or science club really participates in CROP work One month min-courses between semesters

70. Topics Available Now in Draft Form Lab Curriculum Polishing, cleaning scintillator Gluing PMT and wrapping scintillator Assembling high-voltage supply Oscilloscope lesson Turning on counters, source tests, finding/fixing light leaks Measure counter efficiency, high voltage plateau Class Curriculum History of cosmic rays Interaction of charged particles with matter Scintillators and photomultiplier tubes Cosmic ray energy spectrum Julian calendar, UTM, galactic coordinates Global positioning system Ionizing particle detectors Calorimeters and showering Particle zoo and the Standard Model Tour of high-energy particle accelerators Random events, probability Monte Carlo simulations Lightning protection

71. Workshop on Cosmic Ray Physics with School-Based Detector Networks University of Washington/Seattle September 21-23, 2000 http://www.phys.washington.edu/~walta/NALTA.html Many thanks to Jeff Wilkes, the WALTA team, and UW for hosting this workshop!