Telescope Array Radar (TARA) Observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

Construction was completed during summer 2013 on the Telescope Array RAdar (TARA) bi-static radar observatory for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). TARA is co-located with the Telescope Array, the largest "conventional" cosmic ray detector in the Northern Hemisphere, in radio-quiet Western Utah. TARA employs an 8 MW Effective Radiated Power (ERP) VHF transmitter and smart receiver system based on a 250 MS/s data acquisition system in an effort to detect the scatter of sounding radiation by UHECR-induced atmospheric ionization. TARA seeks to demonstrate bi-static radar as a useful new remote sensing technique for UHECRs, extending their detection aperture far beyond what is accessible by conventional means. In this report, we describe the design and performance of the TARA transmitter and receiver systems.

References in corpus (8)

• Measurements of the Cosmic Ray Composition with Air Shower Experiments
• The surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment
• The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• New air fluorescence detectors employed in the Telescope Array experiment
• Indications of Proton-Dominated Cosmic Ray Composition above 1.6 EeV
• The Surface Detector System of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Antennas for the Detection of Radio Emission Pulses from Cosmic-Ray induced Air Showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Design, Modeling and Testing of the Askaryan Radio Array South Pole Autonomous Renewable Power Stations

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Observation of Radar Echoes From High-Energy Particle Cascades
• Long-baseline horizontal radio-frequency transmission through polar ice
• First Upper Limits on the Radar Cross Section of Cosmic-Ray Induced Extensive Air Showers
• Design, Construction and Operation of a Low-Power, Autonomous Radio-Frequency Data-Acquisition Station for the TARA Experiment
• Radiowave Detection of Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos and Cosmic Rays
• Feasibility of radar detection of extensive air showers
• New Constraints on Macroscopic Dark Matter Using Radar Meteor Detectors
• Suggestion of Coherent Radio Reflections from an Electron-Beam Induced Particle Cascade
• The Radar Echo Telescope for Cosmic Rays: Pathfinder Experiment for a Next-Generation Neutrino Observatory
• Implementation of a custom time-domain firmware trigger for RADAR-based cosmic ray detection