Towards measuring the cosmic ray electron spectrum from ground level Original Research Article

Due to energy losses in the interstellar medium, cosmic ray electrons at TeV energies carry information on local (within a few hundred parsecs) accelerators. Unfortunately, measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic ray electrons beyond 1 TeV are extremely difficult due to the rapidly declining flux and the background of nucleonic cosmic rays. The very large collection area of Cherenkov telescope arrays makes them promising instruments with which to measure these high energy electrons. Here we report on progress towards a measurement of the cosmic ray electron spectrum with H.E.S.S.