The Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development is a student research lab in Los Angeles. The group built these telescopes and operates them beside a Quarknet cosmic-ray detector. They look for radio bursts coinciding with air showers, extending beyond the DSPIRA curriculum.
They investigate radiation from high-energy particle cascades in the atmosphere, including Cherenkov and bremsstrahlung emission. A cosmic-ray shower and radio transient might therefore be two observations of the same event. Detecting that coincidence is difficult. It remains an open research question, with no predetermined classroom answer.
What they have published
Preparations for the Detection of Radio Waves Created by High-Energy Cosmic Rays using the WISRD Cosmic Ray Detector — L. Perttula, R. Cortez, S. Zohar, J. Reis and J. A. Wise. The opening paper of the WISRD Research & Engineering Journal, Volume 4 Issue 1, Spring 2022, pages 2 to 12. The report describes four scintillators, their photomultiplier tubes, and a Fermilab data acquisition board. It explains the detector’s calibration and integration with radio telescopes.
Cosmic ray detector calibration, spring 2023 — a progress poster. They are replacing a voltage box and stepper motors with Raspberry Pi-controlled digital potentiometers for remote calibration. They also report an unexplained oscillation in anomalous-event rates that remains under investigation.
If you want to try this
The radio_astro event blocks support coincidence detection. Find detect, dedispersion, correlate, and the triggered CSV sink in gr-radio_astro. The LightWork memo series covers event capture in memos 023 and 027.
The group’s own site is at wisrd.org.