Space-Based Cosmic-Ray and Gamma-Ray Detectors: a Review

TL;DR

This review introduces the fundamental concepts, design considerations, and performance metrics of space-based and balloon-borne cosmic-ray and gamma-ray detectors, emphasizing their role in sensitivity studies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, self-contained overview of detector principles, performance metrics, and their relation to design choices for space and balloon-borne gamma-ray and cosmic-ray instruments.

Findings

Clarifies how design choices affect detector sensitivity

Summarizes key physical processes in radiation detection

Provides foundational knowledge for future detector development

Abstract

Prepared for the 2014 ISAPP summer school, this review is focused on space-borne and balloon-borne cosmic-ray and gamma-ray detectors. It is meant to introduce the fundamental concepts necessary to understand the instrument performance metrics, how they tie to the design choices and how they can be effectively used in sensitivity studies. While the write-up does not aim at being complete or exhaustive, it is largely self-contained in that related topics such as the basic physical processes governing the interaction of radiation with matter and the near-Earth environment are briefly reviewed.