Ultra-Heavy Galactic Cosmic Ray Abundances from the SuperTIGER Instrument

The SuperTIGER (Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) experiment was launched on a long-duration balloon flight from Williams Field, Antarctica, on December 8, 2012. SuperTIGER flew for a total of 55 days at a mean atmospheric depth of 4.4 g/cm$^2$. The instrument measured the abundances of galactic cosmic rays in the charge (Z) range Z$=$10 to Z$=$40 with high statistical precision and excellent charge resolution, displaying well-resolved individual-element peaks at every charge up to and including Z$=$40. We will describe the instrument, data analysis techniques used, balloon flight, and payload recovery. The data that will be presented contain more than 600 events in the charge range from Z$=$30 to Z$=$40, with charge resolution at iron of \textless 0.18 cu. Our results confirm with improved statistics the earlier results from TIGER supporting a model of cosmic-ray origin in OB associations, with preferential acceleration of refractory elements over volatile elements.