Design of a Small Cosmic Ray Air Shower Array to Study Atmospheric Effects

Abstract

High energy primary cosmic rays (\(E > 100\) TeV) produce showers of secondary particles in the atmosphere, called EAS (Extensive Air Showers). An EAS may be recorded by the method of coincidence between a number of scintillation detectors. A small square array of four detectors is designed using Monte Carlo simulation method combined with analytical lateral distribution function for the charged particles at ground level. Preliminary calculation using CORSIKA Simulation code gives an estimate of the size of the array as a function of detector effective area and threshold energy of the primary cosmic ray initiating the shower. The growth and absorption of an EAS depends on the amount of matter traversed, which is more for higher zenith angles. Hence zenith angle distribution may be correlated with atmospheric effects. Experimentally zenith and azimuth angles for individual events can be measured by timing information recorded by each scintillator. In this paper, design of the array in terms of size and threshold parameters and Data Acquisition methods are presented.