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The NASA Particle Astrophysics Program covers Origin of the Elements, Nearest Sources of Cosmic Rays, How Cosmic Particle Accelerators Work, The Nature of Dark Matter, and Neutrino Astrophysics. Progress in each of these topics has come from sophisticated instrumentation flown on long duration balloon (LDB) flights around Antarctica over the past two decades. New opportunities including Super Pressure Balloons (SPB) and International Space Station (ISS) platforms are emerging for the next major step. Stable altitudes and long durations enabled by SPB flights ensure ultra-long duration balloon (ULDB) missions that can open doors to new science opportunities. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) has been operating on the ISS since May 2011. The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) and Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) experiments are being developed for launch to the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) in 2014. And, the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) is planned for launch to the ISS JEM-EF after 2017. Collectively, these four complementary ISS missions covering a large portion of the cosmic ray energy spectrum serve as a cosmic ray observatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmic-ray (CR) spectra, both measured upon their arrival at the Earth’s atmosphere and inferred from the emission in supernova remnants (SNRs), appear to be significantly steeper than the “standard” diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) theory predicts. Although the reconstruction of the primary spectra introduces an additional steepening due to propagation effects, there is a growing consensus in the CR community that these corrections fall short to explain the newest high-precision data. Using 2D hybrid simulations, we investigate a new mechanism that may steepen the spectrum during the acceleration in SNR shocks. Most of the DSA treatments are limited to homogeneous shock environments. To investigate whether inhomogeneity effects can produce the necessary extra steepening, we assume that the magnetic field changes its angle along the shock front. The rationale behind this approach is the strong dependence of the DSA efficiency upon the field angle, θBn. Our results show that the variation of shock obliquity along its face results in a noticeable steepening of the DSA spectrum. Compared to simulations of quasi-parallel shocks, we observe an increase of the spectral index by Δq = 0.1–0.15. Possible extrapolation of the limited simulation results to more realistic SNR conditions are briefly considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]