What are the instruments that you use for measuring cosmic rays, and how do they work?
The TIGER instrument is one experiment with a stack of different detectors, which are all measuring the same particles. We have four detectors that measure the position of the cosmic rays (x and y position at the top and bottom of the experiment) and that gives us the exact path of the particle through the stack of detectors. We have four identical detectors, called scintillators, that measure the energy of the cosmic rays. Four independent measurements combine to give us one good one, plus we can see the particle actually slowing down (losing energy) as it passes through TIGER. And we have two detectors called Cherenkov detectors that measure the velocity of the cosmic rays (the two are “tuned” for different ranges of cosmic ray velocity). All of the detectors work by giving off small amounts of light when the particles pass through. Devices called photomultiplier tubes (there are almost 200 photomultipliers on TIGER) convert the light into electrical signals and, with these signals,
