Status of Ultra-Heavy Galactic Cosmic Ray Analysis for the Two SuperTIGER Antarctic Flights
SuperTIGER (Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) is a long-duration balloon-borne instrument designed to directly measure Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR), with resolved single element peaks from $_{10}$Ne to $_{40}$Zr. SuperTIGER had two successful Antarctic flights: one in 2012 for 55 days and one in 2019 for 32 days. We present the current state of the SuperTIGER analysis, overviewing GCR measured and source abundances from the 2012 flight which made exploratory measurements up to $_{56}$Ba. GCR measurements up to $_{40}$Zr support a source acceleration model where GCR are accelerated from their source of 80\% interstellar medium and 20\% massive star material by supernovae in OB associations and refractory elements, which condense onto interstellar dust grains, are preferentially accelerated over volatiles. GCR measurements above $_{40}$Zr show a break in this preferential acceleration, indicating an alternative Galactic cosmic-ray source (GCRS) or acceleration model for Z > 40. GCRS abundances are obtained from the leaky-box interstellar transport model. We also report simulation results on corrections needed for and energy loss and charge-changing interactions from the atmospheric overburden and instrument material.
Authors
- Q. Abarr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9063-2890)
- G. A. de Nolfo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3677-074X)
- Robert Binns
- Wolfgang V Zober (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2961-8894)
- Sean P. Fitzsimmons
- John Krizmanic (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9690-9352)
- A. W. Labrador (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9178-5349)
- Martin Olevitch
- Andrew West (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5471-4709)
- T. Hams
- T. J. Brandt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4087-1786)
- R. Bose
- Nathan Elliot Walsh
- M. H. Israel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8104-208X)
- Lindsey Lisalda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5202-1642)
- Robert M. Crabill
- J. E. Ward (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1973-0794)
- R. A. Mewaldt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2178-9111)
- B. F. Rauch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1452-4142)
- Yosui Akaike (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9489-1515)
- Ryan Murphy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8658-7583)
- Kenichi Sakai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4038-8954)
- M. Sasaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8273-116X)
- William Labrador
- Nicole Osborn
- N. Cannady (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2916-6955)
- John Mitchell
- Paul Dowkontt
- Dana L Braun
- Scott Nutter
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-09-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0108
- Primary Topic
- Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Washington University in St. Louis