Collaborative Research: The Simpson Neutron Monitor Network

这个为期三年的合作项目的重点是建立一个名为中子监测器(NMS)的地面宇宙射线监测器网络，由三个美国学术机构组成的财团运营，即新汉普郡大学、特拉华州大学和威斯康星河瀑布大学。在经历了曼哈顿计划之后，约翰·辛普森教授于1948年发明了NMS，早在太空时代之前的近十年，NMS就被用于探测和测量太空中的辐射。他们驻扎在全球各地的地面上，为半个多世纪的宇宙辐射提供持续的测量。NMS测量太空中辐射水平的趋势和变化，这是宇航员前往月球和火星旅行的关键信息。他们还可以探测到太阳到达地面的强烈的、短期的辐射爆发。所有这些活动完全是由太阳正在做的事情驱动的。NMS是坚固可靠的，近年来在与国际航天器机队和其他国家的中子监测仪一起使用时，具有新的重要性。现在，由美国赞助的所有核管理系统都将接入辛普森中子监测网络，这将使其更有效地协调行动和科学。在这个为期三年的合作项目中，该联盟将开展这项研究，从这些传统仪器中梳理新的信息，并向世界各地的研究人员提供最新的辐射气候数据。进入地球大气层的宇宙射线是告诉我们大范围日光层结构、当地空间环境和太阳活动的信使。它们已经穿过行星际磁场并与之相互作用，它们携带着有关其详细结构的信息。其中一些宇宙射线拥有足够的能量到达地面。NM是一种地面粒子探测器，它记录粒子阵雨中的核子成分。这与撞击地球大气层的高能宇宙射线的数量直接相关。这些数据的分析被用来建立对太阳对太阳系影响的理解。由于地面站使用的探测器体积很大，中子监测器仍然是测量刚性1GV宇宙射线的最先进的仪器。新汉普郡大学、特拉华州大学和威斯康星河瀑布大学运营的这些仪器的方案链接将确保全球社会高质量数据的连续性，正如国家空间气象计划和国会立法所呼吁的那样。来自这些仪器的数据被许多人使用，包括空间天气预报员、工业、空间科学家、国土安全和水文学家。NM站跨越广泛的纬度，从南极到北极地区。NM信号的贡献者包括来自银河系的宇宙射线，这些宇宙射线受到太阳活动的严重调制，以及来自太阳本身以高能质子爆发的形式。这些物质的可变性揭示了星际空间的条件、一般的太阳活动以及在整个宇宙中产生宇宙射线的基本过程。有了今天的计算资源，我们更好地了解这些仪器是如何探测辐射的，因此该联盟将能够从这些主要设备中提取新的信息。这将为宇宙射线的分布如何随着时间、地理和粒子能量的变化提供新的线索。该联盟将研究如何永久保护监测网络的运行，以及扩展网络以补充现有地点网络的智能方法。该项目的教育和推广目标包括博士后研究职位，为本科生提供的各种机会和经验，以及为高中生和小学生提供的机会。这个合作项目的研究和EPO议程支持AGS部门在发现、学习、多样性和跨学科研究方面的战略目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This three-year collaborative project is focused on building of a network of ground-based cosmic-ray monitors, called Neutron Monitors (NMs), operated by a consortium of three U.S. academic institutions, namely Universities of New Hampshire, Delaware and Wisconsin-River Falls. Invented by Prof. John Simpson in 1948, following his experience on the Manhattan Project, NMs have been used to detect and measure radiation in space, starting almost ten years before the space age. They are stationed on the ground all over the globe, providing continuous measurements of cosmic radiation for over a half century. NMs measure the trends and changes in the radiation levels in space, which is critical information for travel by astronauts to the Moon and Mars. They can also detect intense, short-term bursts of radiation from the Sun that reach the ground. All this activity is driven entirely by what the Sun is doing. NMs are robust and reliable and have assumed a new importance in recent years when used in conjunction with the international fleet of spacecraft and with neutron monitors in other countries. Now, all the NMs sponsored by the U.S. are being linked into what will be the Simpson Neutron Monitor Network, which will make it more efficient to coordinate operations and science.During this three-year collaborative project, the consortium will carry out this research, teasing new information out of these heritage instruments and providing researchers around the world with up-to-date radiation climate data. Cosmic rays entering the Earth’s atmosphere are messengers informing us about large-scale heliosphere structure, local space environment and solar activity. They have already passed through and interacted with the interplanetary magnetic field, and they carry information of its detailed structure. Some of these cosmic rays possess enough energy to reach the ground. A NM is a ground-based particle detector that records the nucleonic component in particle showers. This directly correlates with the number of high energy cosmic rays striking the Earth’s atmosphere. The analysis of these data is used to build an understanding of the Sun’s influence on the Solar System. Because of the large detector volume exploited by ground-based stations, neutron monitors remain the state-of-the-art instrumentation for measuring rigidity 1GV cosmic rays. The programmatic linking of these instruments run by the Universities of New Hampshire, Delaware and Wisconsin-River Falls will secure a continuity of quality data for the global community, as called out in the National Space Weather Plan and Congressional legislation. The data from these instruments are used by many, including, space weather predictors, industry, space scientists, homeland security and hydrologists. The NM stations span a wide range of latitudes, from the South Pole to the Arctic regions. The contributors to the NM signal include cosmic rays from the galaxy that are heavily modulated by solar activity and from the Sun itself in the form of high energy bursts of protons. The variability of these agents reveals conditions in interplanetary space, general solar activity and the fundamental processes that produce cosmic rays throughout the Universe. With today’s computing resources, we better understand how these instruments detect radiation, and the consortium will thus be able to extract new information from these workhorse devices. This will shed new light on how the distribution of cosmic rays varies with time, geography and particle energy. The consortium will study how to permanently secure the operations of the monitor network and intelligent ways of expanding the network to complement those at existing sites. The education and outreach goals of the project include a research position for a postdoc, a wide variety of opportunities and experiences for undergraduates, as well as opportunities for high school and elementary school students. The research and EPO agenda of this collaborative project supports the Strategic Goals of the AGS Division in discovery, learning, diversity, and interdisciplinary research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.