From MariachiWiki
Alicia's Research 2006
Rocky Point high school student
Alicia DiStefano spent her 2006 summer working in the MARIACHI experiment. MARIACHI is a unique experiment that involves physics teachers, students and scientists, to develop a
radar technique for the detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays. A series of cosmic ray shower detectors and radar stations are interconnected via
cyberinfrastructure for data collection and analysis. In its demonstration phase detectors built by teams of teacher and students were installed in 6 schools on Long Island, NY to collect preliminary data on cosmic rays. Rocky Point high school physics teacher,
Dr. Jeff Spahn, developed a data collection system for the demonstration phase. Simulations indicate that cosmic rays of energy larger than 10
16 eV are detected by each of the detectors. Alicia's analysis of MARIACHI data was made to demonstrate that they are from cosmic rays and not from sources such as electronic noise. The body of data that is only accessible for those that have
Grid Certificates, corresponding to 2 months of data taking was correlated to atmospheric barometric pressure.
The event rate for all sites analyzed anti-correlates with the atmospheric pressure, as expected. The increase in barometric pressure is an indication that air density is higher absorbing higher percentage of cosmic ray shower particles, decreasing the detection rate. This analysis demonstrates that (1) the design of the
MARIACHI shower detector is appropriate for the implementation phase, and (2) our
data collection that includes high schools, colleges and national laboratories is achievable.
