New high precision measurements of the cosmic charged particle rate beyond the Arctic Circle with the PolarquEEEst experiment

Abstract The goal of the PolarquEEEst experiment was to measure the cosmic charged particle rate at latitudes greater than 66 $$^{\circ }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mo>∘</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math> N, where no systematic and accurate measurements at sea level have ever been performed. A latitude range well above the Arctic Circle was explored on board of a sailboat, up to the unprecedented northernmost value of $$82^{\circ }07^{\prime }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mn>82</mml:mn><mml:mo>∘</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:msup><mml:mn>07</mml:mn><mml:mo>′</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math> N. In this paper a description of the experimental set-up is reported, then the procedures for calibration and data analysis are described in detail. The results show that the rate measured in this latitude range stays constant within a novel accuracy of $$\pm 1$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math> %.