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Course module: UCSCIPHYL6
UCSCIPHYL6
Modeling and Analysis of Astronomical Data
Course info
Course codeUCSCIPHYL6
EC2.5
Course goals
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Content
Cosmic rays are mainly atomic nuclei that reach the Earth from the outer space traveling at a speed close to that of light. The origin of the most energetic cosmic rays is still a mystery but for certain they originate outside our Galaxy. In this module students work in the cosmic ray experiment HiSPARC, http://www.hisparc.nl, in collaboration with members of the Sub-Atomic Physics group at UU Physics Department.
 
During this module students analyze cosmic ray data provided by an array of ~100 detector stations, of which three are hosted by UCU, distributed across the Netherlands and other countries.  The analysis is done in the programming language Python. Previous experience in programming is recommended but it is not essential. 
 
Students gain experience in
  • the selection of large amounts of data,
  • monitoring the performance of photo-multiplier tubes to ensure data quality,
  • display analysis results graphically
Students undertake projects such as the analysis of the correlation between cosmic ray flux with weather parameters.UCU hosts a weather station on campus for the analysis of day-night effects or seasonal effects on cosmic ray flux, and reconstruction and determination of the direction of high energetic cosmic ray showers.

You will be writing  numerical codes in your projects. The skills you will learn here are not specific to the HiSPARC experiment and they are relevant to many present day projects that require the analysis of big data. In particular, Python is now widely advocated as an ideal language for a scientific programming environment.
 
Schedule
The module starts at end of January and continues throughout the Spring semester.
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Kies de Nederlandse taal