A communication solution for portable detectors of the Cosmic Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel communication system using 169MHz radio waves to connect diverse portable cosmic ray detectors across large areas, enabling the Cosmic-Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory to detect cosmic-ray ensembles.

Contribution

It introduces a specialized radio communication solution for diverse, distributed detectors, facilitating large-scale cosmic ray research with low energy consumption.

Findings

Developed a 169MHz radio-based data transmission system

Integrated the system with a portable detector prototype

Enabled communication in hard-to-reach environments

Abstract

The search for Cosmic-Ray Ensembles (CRE), groups of correlated cosmic rays that might be distributed over very large areas, even of the size of the planet, requires a globally spread and dense network of detectors, as proposed by the Cosmic-Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory (CREDO) Collaboration. This proposal motivates an effort towards exploring the potential of using even very much diversified detection technologies within one system, with detection units located even in hard-to-reach places, where, nevertheless, the sensors could work independently - without human intervention. For these reasons we have developed a dedicated communication solution enabling the connection of many different types of detectors, in a range of environments. The proposed data transmission system uses radio waves as an information carrier on the 169MHz frequency band in a contrast to the typical commercially used frequencies in a IoT systems (868MHz). The connectivity within the system is based on the star topology, which ensures the least energy consumption. The solution is now being prepared to being implemented using the prototype detection system based on the CosmicWatch open hardware design: a portable, pocket size, and economy particle detector using the scintillation technique. Our prototype detector is equipped with a dedicated software that integrates it with the already operational CREDO server system.