BGO temperature dependence and energy measurements in the ATIC calorimeter
Abstract
The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) Balloon Experiment had a successful test flight and a science flight in 2000-01 and 2002-03 respectively from McMurdo, Antarctica, returning 16 and 19 days of flight data. ATIC is designed to measure the spectra of cosmic rays (protons to iron). The instrument is composed of a Silicon matrix detector followed by a carbon target interleaved with scintillator tracking layers and a segmented BGO calorimeter composed of 320 individual crystals totalling 18 radiation lengths to determine the particle energy. BGO (Bimuth Germanate) is an inorganic scintillation crystal and its light output depends not only on the energy deposited by particles but also on the temperature of the crystal. The temperature of balloon instruments during flight is not constant due to sun angle variations as well as differences in albedo from the ground. For this purpose the response to temperature variations of the ATIC calorimeter was determined in a thermal chamber.