From MariachiWiki
Do comic ray flux correlate with cloud coverage? This is the question that students Mashkura and Dalibell from The Young Women Leadership School, from East Harlem have investigated using MARIACHI scintillators. The research was done under the direction of teacher David Lewine using the data acquisition that was designed for the demonstration phase of the MARIACHI experiment. The flux of cosmic rays were measured three times a day for 20 days and images of the cloud coverage taken using a CCD camera and a convex mirror. To correct for distortions of the covex mirror, the students came up with an ingenious scheme. They have taken a picture of the ceiling tiles in the classroom to contruct a map of each square.
The report written by the students describe all the steps of this research project, from detector construction, to measurements and data analysis. The results show no statistical significant correlation between cosmic ray rate and cloud coverage. Future MARIACHI data collection will be automated and correlations with environmental parameters can be studied by automating data gathering with other parameters.
