Worldwide Cosmic Ray Flux Study

April 11–15, 2016

Join us!

Is the cosmic ray flux the same all over the world? Let’s find out!

International Muon Week (IMW) 2015 participants share data worldwide.

By sharing data in this way, we are developing a detector research community and connecting students around the world.

Participants collect and analyze data and share results on a Google map. We pair schools to facilitate student discussion.

We encourage students to ask questions about shared data and how other schools participate in our cosmic ray studies community. 

Join us in the fourth annual International Muon Week!

Map of 2015 Participants

Map of 2014 Participants

REGISTRATION

To register, fill out the electronic form below. It's short and important. From the registrations we create an international map showing participating sites.

Contact form: http://goo.gl/forms/sZ5cX8k1im

DATA COLLECTION

Leading up to April 11th, verify your detector operation. Test that your hardware is running and collecting data.

Collect flux data during the week of April 11–15. It is not necessary to collect data all the time, if that is not feasible. Some data are preferable to none.

For our experiment procedure, we need similar experimental conditions. We ask all users to place their detector counters in a stacked configuration directly on top of each other with no distance between the counters. If you have four counters, please set up the analysis for three-fold coincidence.

For QuarkNet users, cosmic ray muon detector (CRMD) help is available in the Cosmic Ray e-Lab at the Help Desk (upper right of e-Lab web page, looks like a life ring,

https://www.i2u2.org/elab/cosmic/teacher/forum/HelpDeskRequest.php.

QuarkNet CRMD users should use the following DAQ commands to configure their detector DAQ:

ST 3 5 à report channel count status, 5-minute interval

WC 00 2F à set three-fold coincidence (The two digits in the middle are zeros, by the way.)

SA 1 à save configuration

Have the counters stacked directly on top of each other.  Don’t forget to update your CRMD geometry.

DATA ANALYSIS

Make a flux plot for your entire data set you collected; use an analysis tool of your choice. The Cosmic Ray e-Lab will simplify building a flux plot; capture the plot URL.

Submit flux plot URL: http://rodshome.com/CosmicMap/SubmitPLOT/contactform.php

For Cosmic Ray e-Lab users, at the end of the week, upload your data to the Cosmic Ray e-Lab (www.i2u2.org/elab/cosmic), run a flux analysis on the week's data and save the plot. Go to "View Plots" and open your saved flux plot; capture the URL. Submit it through the submit flux plot URL link above.

If you need a Cosmic Ray e-Lab account, follow the email form link.

Request e-Lab account: https://www.i2u2.org/elab/teacher.html

STUDENT INTERACTIONS

We randomly pair your student team with a team at a participating school and invite you to share data with your partner school. We encourage you to have students ask questions of other students regarding the data. This could take place over email, chat, Google Hangout or another method of your choice.

If you can participate only for part of the week, even a day, we encourage you to submit your results.

FINAL REPORT

At the conclusion of your collaboration with your partner school, prepare a one-page pdf report of your results. Include the names of the sites, plot pictures, and any discussion or conclusions from your collaboration.

Submit pdf form: http://rodshome.com/CosmicMap/SubmitPDF/contactform.php

If you are not paired with another site or the other site could not continue, please prepare an individual pdf report. Later we will combine all submissions into one report and share the final report.