Energy spectrum of diffuse primary X rays up to 180 keV

Abstract

Two balloon flights with identical X-ray detectors were carried out in the summer of 1966, one from De Bilt, the Netherlands (geomagnetic latitude 53 °N), and the other from Taiyomura, Japan (geomagnetic latitude 25 °N). The detector consists of a NaI(Tl) crystal, 12.5 mm thick and 50 mm in diameter, surrounded by an effective collimator-shield and a plastic scintillator guard counter. The rotating disk incorporated enables the separation of "forward" X rays from the cosmic-ray-induced background. The results of the flights are in very good agreement with each other. In view of the rather large difference in geomagnetic latitude in these two flights, this agreement supports the celestial origin of the primary X rays observed. The energy spectrum between 20 and 180 keV can be expressed by a power law:[Formula: see text]