Using Cosmic Rays detected by HST as Geophysical Markers I: Detection and Characterization of Cosmic Rays. (arXiv:2006.00909v2 [astro-ph.IM] UPDATED)

Using Cosmic Rays detected by HST as Geophysical Markers I: Detection and Characterization of Cosmic Rays. (arXiv:2006.00909v2 [astro-ph.IM] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Miles_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">Nathan Miles</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Deustua_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Susana E. Deustua</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Tancredi_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Gonzalo Tancredi</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Schnyder_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">German Schnyder</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Nesmachnow_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Sergio Nesmachnow</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Cromwell_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Geoffrey Cromwell</a>

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been operational for over 30 years and
throughout that time it has been bombarded by high energy charged particles
colloquially referred to as cosmic rays. In this paper, we present a
comprehensive study of more than 1.2 billion cosmic rays observed with HST
using a custom written python package, texttt{HSTcosmicrays}, that is
available to the astronomical community. We analyzed $75,908$ dark calibration
files taken as part of routine calibration programs for five different CCD
imagers with operational coverage of Solar Cycle 23 and 24. We observe the
expected modulation of galactic cosmic rays by solar activity. For the three
imagers with the largest non-uniformity in thickness, we independently confirm
the overall structure produced by fringing analyses by analyzing cosmic ray
strikes across the detector field of view. We analyze STIS/CCD observations
taken as HST crosses over the South Atlantic Anomaly and find a peak cosmic ray
flux of $sim1100$ $CR/s/cm^2$. We find strong evidence for two spatially
confined regions over North America and Australia that exhibit increased cosmic
ray fluxes at the $5sigma$ level.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been operational for over 30 years and
throughout that time it has been bombarded by high energy charged particles
colloquially referred to as cosmic rays. In this paper, we present a
comprehensive study of more than 1.2 billion cosmic rays observed with HST
using a custom written python package, texttt{HSTcosmicrays}, that is
available to the astronomical community. We analyzed $75,908$ dark calibration
files taken as part of routine calibration programs for five different CCD
imagers with operational coverage of Solar Cycle 23 and 24. We observe the
expected modulation of galactic cosmic rays by solar activity. For the three
imagers with the largest non-uniformity in thickness, we independently confirm
the overall structure produced by fringing analyses by analyzing cosmic ray
strikes across the detector field of view. We analyze STIS/CCD observations
taken as HST crosses over the South Atlantic Anomaly and find a peak cosmic ray
flux of $sim1100$ $CR/s/cm^2$. We find strong evidence for two spatially
confined regions over North America and Australia that exhibit increased cosmic
ray fluxes at the $5sigma$ level.

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