m-thesis-documentation/topic.tex

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\title{ \Large Enhancing Timing Accuracy in Airshower Radio Detectors}
\date{2021-11-22}
\author{
	Eric Teunis de Boone\\
	{ \small Supervisor: }\\
	Harm Schoorlemmer \\
	{ \small Second Reader: }\\
	Katherine Mulrey
}

\begin{document}
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	Radio Detectors have been succesfully applied for detecting airshowers, which are caused by a cosmic ray impinging on the Earth's atmosphere.
	In such an airshower, successive interactions will create charged particles which in turn cause a specific electromagnetic signal.
	Measuring the development over time of such a signal will give a better insight in the energy content of the shower, and, in turn, allow for better resolution of the initial cosmic ray's properties.
\\

	A difficulty for radio detectors is that, because of their extent, the stations need to communicate wirelessly,
	but an accurate timing is needed to follow this signal.
	Advanced analyses require a timing accuracy on the order of $1$~nanosecond, while current detectors reach a timing accuracy up to around $10$-nanoseconds.
\\

	Various mechanisms are employed to increase the timing accuracy, overall and per station.
	Since radio detectors only have a horizontal extent, keeping to horizontal showers allows for using the spatial distance as an additional timing mechanism.

	Another important mechanism involves GPS chips.
	Such a chip tracks satellites around the Earth.
	These satellites sent out signals which can be used to triangulate the position (and time) of the chip.

	Beacons are another example.
	Sending out a specific signal allows to track this signal across individual stations.
	By introducing characteristics into the signal such as beating, the stations then have a time calibration system setup.
\\

	This internship concerns itself with increasing the timing accuracy by investigating the various mechanisms (and their issues) used as timing calibration.

	For example, since the spatial extent of the radio detectors is large, it might happen that a station on one side might track more or different satellites than a station on the other side of the detector.
	This might introduce a timing difference for GPS chips, decreasing the total timing accuracy attained by the detector.
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