Specific Ionization of Gases by Soft Cosmic Rays, Residual Currents and Deep Water Measurements

Abstract

IT was shown by J. Juilfs and V. Masuch¹ that the ionization by cosmic rays filtered at sea-level through 10 cm. lead is proportional to the gas density in the measuring chamber. The same property was found by us to exist in the case of the soft cosmic rays in the upper layers of the troposphere. The measurements were made during a balloon ascent on May 14 between 6 km. and 10 km. Two similar spherical ionization chambers were used, one filled with nitrogen, the other with krypton containing about 5 per cent of xenon. The gases were kept under 16.5 atm. pressure; Lindemann electrometers controlled by a Weston normal cell were employed. The results are shown in Fig. 1. By multiplying the ordinates of the lower nitrogen curve by the relative density of the gases, 3.06, one obtains points corresponding to the krypton curve. With radium C gamma rays I_Kr/I_N2 was found to be 5.3, which value differs widely from that for cosmic rays.