Ongoing Research and Preliminary Findings

Many cosmic rays are absorbed by the atmosphere, and it is well known that the number of observed cosmic rays increases with altitude. Utilizing this phenomenon, we are conducting experiments at higher altitudes to confirm that cosmic rays can indeed be detected using CMOS camera image sensors.

We prepared a detector similar to the one shown on the left and conducted experiments on an airplane. A CMOS sensor is connected to a Raspberry Pi, and the white device is a GPS housed in a waterproof box. The flight routes consist of three options: Guam, Vancouver, and Montreal, all flying to Japan. As shown in the color-coded diagram, there is a significant difference in cutoff rigidity due to the magnetic field for the Guam route. Therefore, if observations are successful, we anticipate a noticeable difference in the increase in observation amounts.

The three figures below represent actual observation results. The shaded areas indicate the average signal levels and standard deviations from ground observations. In the Guam route, we have extracted the time periods with sufficiently increased observation levels, displaying the average and standard deviation. From this, we can see an increase of 3.54 times compared to ground levels. Similarly, the Vancouver route shows a 4.24 times increase, while the Montreal route shows a 5.25 times increase. As predicted, the Guam route, which experiences the strongest cutoff due to the magnetic field, has the least increase.

Other comparative Measurements

Conference Presentations and Papers

  • September 18, 2024: The 79th Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan
    "Observations of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers using CMOS Camera Image Sensors (5)"
  • September 16, 2023: The 78th Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan
    "Observations of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers using CMOS Camera Image Sensors (4)"
  • July 29 - August 2, 2023: The 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023) at NAGOYA
    "A New Method for Observing the Core of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays Using Compact Detectors." PoS(ICRC2023)410 W. Takano and K. Hibino
    "Consumer Devices with CMOS camera image sensors as Pocket-Sized Particle Detectors." PoS(ICRC2023)1620 W. Takano and K. Hibino
  • March 27, 2023: The 6th Workshop on Exploration of Cosmic Ray Origin by Air Shower Observation
    "Observations of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers using CMOS Camera Image Sensors - Proposal of a Simple Observation Model Performing Observations with Three CMOS Sensors as an Array and iOS App 'Soramame' "
  • September 6 - 8, 2022: The 77th Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan
    Presentation Title: "Observations of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers using CMOS Camera Image Sensors (3)"
  • July 15 - 22, 2021: The 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference

    Title: Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays EAS Core using CMOS Camera Image Sensors
  • March 12 - 15, 2021: The 76th Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan
    Presentation Title: "Observations of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers using CMOS Camera Image Sensors (2)"
  • November 9 - 13, 2020: The Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies - Division of Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravitation, Workshop on Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravitation

    Title: Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays EAS Core using CMOS Camera Image Sensors
  • September 14 - 17, 2020: The 75th Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan
    Presentation Title: "Observations of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers using CMOS Camera Image Sensors"