A Measurement of the Flux of Cosmic Ray Iron at 5 x 10^13 eV

Abstract

We present results from the initial flight of our Balloon Air CHerenkov (BACH) payload. BACH detects air Cherenkov radiation from cosmic ray nuclei as coincident flashes in two optical modules. The flight (dubbed PDQ BACH) took place on April 22, 1998 from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico. During an exposure of 2.75 hours, with a typical threshold energy for iron nuclei of 2.2$\times 10^{13}$ eV, we observed several events cleanly identifiable as iron group nuclei. Analysis of the data yields a new flux measurement that is fully consistent with that reported by other investigations.

arXiv comment16 pages, 7 Figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

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