Advanced functionality for radio analysis in the Offline software framework of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe advent of the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) necessitates the development of a powerful framework for the analysis of radio measurements of cosmic ray air showers. As AERA performs ''radiohybrid'' measurements of air shower radio emission in coincidence with the surface particle detectors and fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the radio analysis functionality had to be incorporated in the existing hybrid analysis solutions for fluorescence and surface detector data. This goal has been achieved in a natural way by extending the existing Auger Offline software framework with radio functionality. In this article, we lay out the design, highlights and features of the radio extension implemented in the Auger Offline framework. Its functionality has achieved a high degree of sophistication and offers advanced features such as vectorial reconstruction of the electric field, advanced signal processing algorithms, a transparent and efficient handling of FFTs, a very detailed simulation of detector effects, and the read-in of multiple data formats including data from various

Probing the radio emission from air showers with polarization measurements

“…This technique is described in detail in Refs. [45,46]. In the analysis of the radio signals we used the analytic signal, which is a complex representation of the electric field vector ⃗ E j , where j runs over the sample number in the time trace.…”

“…The comparison between the measured data and the values predicted by the various models was done with the analysis package [45,46], which was introduced in Sec. III C. The data from the SD together with the position and orientation of each RDS were used to predict the electric field strength in each polarization direction of an RDS.…”

Results from the Pierre Auger Observatory

“…In addition, the observatory has become the basis for testing several new detection methods. time [ns] channel east channel north Figure 9: Time traces of a simulated radio signal in two channels of the AERA detector [21].…”

The Energy Content of Extensive Air Showers in the Radio Frequency Range of 30-80 MHz

“…The raw data are reconstructed using the software framework Off line of the Pierre Auger Collaboration [22,23]. We correct for the influence of the analog signal chain using the absolute calibration of the AERA station and reconstruct a three-dimensional electric field by using the direction of the shower and applying the simulated antenna response [21].…”