Design, Construction and Operation of a Low-Power, Autonomous Radio-Frequency Data-Acquisition Station for the TARA Experiment

TL;DR

This paper details the design and deployment of a low-power, autonomous radio-frequency data acquisition system for the TARA experiment, aiming to detect ultra-high energy cosmic rays via radar reflections.

Contribution

It introduces a novel low-power, self-powered remote station design for cosmic ray detection, including hardware, triggering, and communication systems.

Findings

Successful deployment of autonomous stations in the field

Detection of radar echoes from cosmic ray air showers

Low-cost, energy-efficient hardware implementation

Abstract

Employing a 40-kW radio-frequency transmitter just west of Delta, UT, and operating at 54.1 MHz, the TARA (Telescope Array RAdar) experiment seeks radar detection of extensive air showers (EAS) initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR). For UHECR with energies in excess of $10^{19}$ eV, the Doppler-shifted "chirps" resulting from EAS shower core radar reflections should be observable above background (dominantly galactic) at distances of tens of km from the TARA transmitter. In order to stereoscopically reconstruct cosmic ray chirps, two remote, autonomous self-powered receiver stations have been deployed. Each remote station (RS) combines both low power consumption as well as low cost. Triggering logic, the powering and communication systems, and some specific details of hardware components are discussed.