David Angelaszek
University of Maryland
Ph.D Preliminary Research Presentation: Measurement of Cosmic Ray Nuclei with the Cosmic Ray Energetic and Mass (CREAM) Experiment.
The goal of the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) experiment is to resolve several open questions regarding the source, acceleration mechanism and propagation of cosmic-rays. It accomplishes this task through a series of long-duration balloon flights over the continent of Antarctica. Since 2004, there have been six successful flights. A seventh flight is planned for launch in December 2012. In parallel, a follow-on project is underway to integrate a CREAM payload on board the International Space Station in the summer of 2014. In this talk, I give a summary of the detector configurations planned for both projects and how they allow CREAM to extend direct measurements of cosmic rays to the highest energies and with the best statistics possible. The CREAM Data Acquisition software system and the modifications needed to prepare it for both missions will be discussed in detail as well. Lastly, I will give an overview of the significance of measuring the relative abundances of primary and secondary cosmic ray nuclei and how such an analysis will be conducted using data from CREAM-III-VII.