Air shower development through the time dependence of its induced electric field

Ultra-high energy cosmic rays impinge on the atmosphere and induce air shower cascades, in which huge numbers of particles are produced. By travelling through the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, these particles create a noticeable effect on the electric field at the surface. In this article, we demonstrate that parameters of the shower longitudinal development and primary mass can be inferred from mapping the time dependence of the observed electric field to the emitted electric field as a function of slant depth along the shower axis.