In 1912 Victor Franz Hess made the revolutionary discovery that
ionizing radiation is incident upon the Earth from outer space. He
showed with ground-based and balloon-borne detectors that the
intensity of the radiation did not change significantly between day
and night. Consequently, the sun could not be regarded as the
sources of this radiation and the question of its origin remained
unanswered. Today, almost one hundred years later the question of
the origin of the cosmic radiation still remains a mystery.
Hess' discovery has given an enormous impetus to large areas of
science, in particular to physics, and has played a major role in
the formation of our current understanding of universal evolution.
For example, the development of new fields of research such as
elementary particle physics, modern astrophysics and cosmology are
direct consequences of this discovery. Over the years the field of
cosmic ray research has evolved in various directions: Firstly, the
field of particle physics that was initiated by the discovery of
many so-called elementary particles in the cosmic radiation. There
is a strong trend from the accelerator physics community to reenter
the field of cosmic ray physics, now under the name of
astroparticle physics. Secondly, an important branch of cosmic ray
physics that has rapidly evolved in conjunction with space
exploration concerns the low energy portion of the cosmic ray
spectrum. Thirdly, the branch of research that is concerned with
the origin, acceleration and propagation of the cosmic radiation
represents a great challenge for astrophysics, astronomy and
cosmology. Presently very popular fields of research have rapidly
evolved, such as high-energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. In
addition, high-energy neutrino astronomy may soon initiate as a
likely spin-off neutrino tomography of the Earth and thus open a
unique new branch of geophysical research of the interior of the
Earth. Finally, of considerable interest are the biological and
medical aspects of the cosmic radiation because of it ionizing
character and the inevitable irradiation to which we are exposed.
This book is a reference manual for researchers and students of
cosmic ray physics and associated fields and phenomena. It is not
intended to be a tutorial. However, the book contains an adequate
amount of background materials that its content should be useful to
a broad community of scientists and professionals. The present book
contains chiefly a data collection in compact form that covers the
cosmic radiation in the vicinity of the Earth, in the Earth's
atmosphere, at sea level and underground. Included are
predominantly experimental but also theoretical data. In addition
the book contains related data, definitions and important
relations. The aim of this book is to offer the reader in a single
volume a readily available comprehensive set of data that will save
him the need of frequent time consuming literature searches.
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