Balloon Flight Performance and Preliminary Results of the Prototype Tracking and Imaging Gamma-Ray Experiment (TIGRE)

The TIGRE prototype scientific balloon instrument was flown for the first time on 2-3 June 2007 from Ft. Sumner NM. Approximately 2 million events (100 GB) were recorded during a period of 20 hours. This instrument is sensitive to gamma radiation from 1-10 MeV using Compton scattering with recoil electron tracking and from 10-100 MeV for gamma-ray pairs. A combination of silicon strip detectors and NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl) scintillation detectors are used. A detailed description of the flight operation of the instrument, and initial results of the flight data are presented. Upgrades to the instrument for future balloon flights will be discussed.

This work is supported by NASA Grants No. NNG04WC14G and NNX08AJ83G