On a new method of separating the diffuse cosmic X-ray component in balloon-borne measurements

The diffuse X-ray background from 20 to 200 keV has been measured many times by rocket-, satellite-, and balloon-borne detectors. As has been noted by a number of authors, the balloon measurements do not agree with those outside the atmosphere. This suggests some systematic difference in the derivation of the diffuse flux. In the present article we propose a method for the analysis of balloon data in which the source function (atmospherically produced and scattered primary) is derived from the experimental data and is then used to calculate the residual counting rate due only to the transmitted primary photons.