Early Results from TUS, the First Orbital Detector of Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

TUS is the world's first orbital detector of extreme energy cosmic rays (EECRs), which operates as a part of the scientific payload of the Lomonosov satellite since May 19, 2016. TUS employs the nocturnal atmosphere of the Earth to register ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence and Cherenkov radiation from extensive air showers generated by EECRs as well as UV radiation from lightning strikes and transient luminous events, micro-meteors and space debris. The first months of its operation in orbit have demonstrated an unexpectedly rich variety of UV radiation in the atmosphere. We briefly review the design of TUS and present a few examples of events recorded in a mode dedicated to registering EECRs.

8 pages, to appear in the proceedings of UHECR2016, Kyoto, 11-14 October 2016; version 2: minor changes following referee's suggestions; version 3: typo in the caption of Fig.2 fixed

References in corpus (3)

• Observation of the GZK Cutoff Using the HiRes Detector
• Past, Present and Future of UHECR Observations
• First results of the Lomonosov TUS and GRB experiments

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The integration and testing of the Mini-EUSO multi-level trigger system
• An extensive-air-shower-like event registered with the TUS orbital detector
• Application of neural networks to classification of data of the TUS orbital telescope
• Prospects of observing gamma-ray bursts with orbital detectors of ultra-high energy cosmic rays