Search for: All records

The Formosa Satellite‐7/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate‐2 (FORMOSAT‐7/COSMIC‐2, F7/C2) Tri‐GNSS Radio Occultation System observes both Global Positioning System (GPS) and GLObalnaya NAvigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS) slant total electron content (TEC). Space‐based TEC observations have historically relied on GPS signals, and the processing methodologies and data quality of GLONASS absolute TEC observations are thus less well established. We present a description of the differences in the processing for the F7/C2 GLONASS absolute TEC observations. This primarily entails estimation of a paired receiver‐transmitter differential code bias, which is needed due to the GLONASS usage of frequency‐division multiple access. We additionally perform a validation of the F7/C2 GLONASS absolute TEC observations through comparison with colocated F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations. Based on this comparison, we estimate the GLONASS absolute TEC error to be ∼2.6 TEC units (TECU), which is similar to previous estimates of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC error (∼2.5 TECU). This demonstrates that the F7/C2 GLONASS absolute TEC observations are generally similar in quality to the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations, and are suitable for use by the operational and scientific communities.

 

IceCube alert events are neutrinos with a moderate-to-high probability of having astrophysical origin. In this study, we analyze 11 yr of IceCube data and investigate 122 alert events and a selection of high-energy tracks detected between 2009 and the end of 2021. This high-energy event selection (alert events + high-energy tracks) has an average probability of ≥0.5 of being of astrophysical origin. We search for additional continuous and transient neutrino emission within the high-energy events’ error regions. We find no evidence for significant continuous neutrino emission from any of the alert event directions. The only locally significant neutrino emission is the transient emission associated with the blazar TXS 0506+056, with a local significance of 3σ, which confirms previous IceCube studies. When correcting for 122 test positions, the globalp-value is 0.156 and compatible with the background hypothesis. We constrain the total continuous flux emitted from all 122 test positions at 100 TeV to be below 1.2 × 10⁻¹⁵(TeV cm²s)⁻¹at 90% confidence assuming anE⁻²spectrum. This corresponds to 4.5% of IceCube’s astrophysical diffuse flux. Overall, we find no indication that alert events in general are linked to lower-energetic continuous or transient neutrino emission.

 

Slant absolute total electron content (TEC) is observed by the Formosa Satellite‐7/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate‐2 (FORMOSAT‐7/COSMIC‐2, F7/C2) Tri‐GNSS Radio Occultation System (TGRS) instrument. We present details of the data processing algorithms, validation, and error assessment for the F7/C2 global positioning system (GPS) absolute TEC observations. The data processing includes estimation and application of solar panel dependent pseudorange multipath maps, phase to pseudorange leveling, and estimation of separate L1C‐L2C and L1C‐L2P receiver differential code biases. We additionally perform a validation of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations through comparison with colocated, independent, TEC observations from the Swarm‐B satellite. Based on this comparison, we conclude that the accuracy of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations is less than 3.0 TEC units. Results are also presented that illustrate the suitability of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations for studying the climatology and variability of the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere (i.e., altitudes above the F7/C2 orbit of550 km). These results demonstrate that F7/C2 provides high quality GPS absolute TEC observations that can be used for ionosphere‐thermosphere data assimilation as well as scientific studies of the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere.

 

The origin of high-energy cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that continuously impact Earth’s atmosphere, is unknown. Because of deflection by interstellar magnetic fields, cosmic rays produced within the Milky Way arrive at Earth from random directions. However, cosmic rays interact with matter near their sources and during propagation, which produces high-energy neutrinos. We searched for neutrino emission using machine learning techniques applied to 10 years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. By comparing diffuse emission models to a background-only hypothesis, we identified neutrino emission from the Galactic plane at the 4.5σ level of significance. The signal is consistent with diffuse emission of neutrinos from the Milky Way but could also arise from a population of unresolved point sources.

 

This study investigates the underlying physics of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) on 11 December 2019, under solar minimum conditions. The Global‐scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) ultraviolet nightglow images exhibit a periodic distribution of reduced emissions related to EPBs. Remarkably, FORMOSAT‐7/COSMIC‐2 (F7/C2) observes a significant altitudinal difference of ~45 km in the bottomside ionosphere between two nearly collocated electron density profiles before the onset of EPBs, indicating the presence of an upwelling. Distinct ionospheric perturbations are also observed in F7/C2 and ground‐based Global Positioning System observations, suggesting that gravity waves may contribute to the upwelling. Simulations with SAMI3/ESF are further carried out to evaluate the upwelling growth and pre‐reversal enhancement (PRE) effect on EPB development. Simulations reveal that the crests of upwellings show a localized uplift of ~50 km, and EPBs only develop from the crest of upwellings. The uplift altitude of upwellings is comparable to the F7/C2 observations and the post‐sunset rise in moderate solar conditions. The polarization electric field (E_p) developed within the upwellings can drive verticalE_p × Bdrifts of ~32–35 m/s, which are comparable to the PRE verticalE × Bdrifts. We find that the PRE alone cannot drive EPBs without upwelling growth, but it can facilitate the upwelling growth. Observations and simulations allow us to conclude that upwelling growth could play a vital role in the formation of EPBs.

 

Abstract Core-collapse supernovae are a promising potential high-energy neutrino source class. We test for correlation between seven years of IceCube neutrino data and a catalog containing more than 1000 core-collapse supernovae of types IIn and IIP and a sample of stripped-envelope supernovae. We search both for neutrino emission from individual supernovae as well as for combined emission from the whole supernova sample, through a stacking analysis. No significant spatial or temporal correlation of neutrinos with the cataloged supernovae was found. All scenarios were tested against the background expectation and together yield an overall p -value of 93%; therefore, they show consistency with the background only. The derived upper limits on the total energy emitted in neutrinos are 1.7 × 10 48 erg for stripped-envelope supernovae, 2.8 × 10 48 erg for type IIP, and 1.3 × 10 49 erg for type IIn SNe, the latter disfavoring models with optimistic assumptions for neutrino production in interacting supernovae. We conclude that stripped-envelope supernovae and supernovae of type IIn do not contribute more than 14.6% and 33.9%, respectively, to the diffuse neutrino flux in the energy range of about [ 10 3 –10 5 ] GeV, assuming that the neutrino energy spectrum follows a power-law with an index of −2.5. Under the same assumption, we can only constrain the contribution of type IIP SNe to no more than 59.9%. Thus, core-collapse supernovae of types IIn and stripped-envelope supernovae can both be ruled out as the dominant source of the diffuse neutrino flux under the given assumptions. 

Abstract The D-Egg, an acronym for “Dual optical sensors in an Ellipsoid Glass for Gen2,” is one of the optical modules designed for future extensions of the IceCube experiment at the South Pole. The D-Egg has an elongated-sphere shape to maximize the photon-sensitive effective area while maintaining a narrow diameter to reduce the cost and the time needed for drilling of the deployment holes in the glacial ice for the optical modules at depths up to 2700 m. The D-Egg design is utilized for the IceCube Upgrade, the next stage of the IceCube project also known as IceCube-Gen2 Phase 1, where nearly half of the optical sensors to be deployed are D-Eggs. With two 8-inch high-quantum efficiency photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) per module, D-Eggs offer an increased effective area while retaining the successful design of the IceCube digital optical module (DOM). The convolution of the wavelength-dependent effective area and the Cherenkov emission spectrum provides an effective photodetection sensitivity that is 2.8 times larger than that of IceCube DOMs. The signal of each of the two PMTs is digitized using ultra-low-power 14-bit analog-to-digital converters with a sampling frequency of 240 MSPS, enabling a flexible event triggering, as well as seamless and lossless event recording of single-photon signals to multi-photons exceeding 200 photoelectrons within 10 ns. Mass production of D-Eggs has been completed, with 277 out of the 310 D-Eggs produced to be used in the IceCube Upgrade. In this paper, we report the design of the D-Eggs, as well as the sensitivity and the single to multi-photon detection performance of mass-produced D-Eggs measured in a laboratory using the built-in data acquisition system in each D-Egg optical sensor module.