The Central Laser Facility at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Fick, B.; Malek, M.; Matthews, John; Matthews, J.; Meyhandan, R.; Mostafá, M.; Roberts, M.; Sommers, P.; Wiencke, L.

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/1/11/p11003

Cited by 79 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The aerosol content of the atmosphere during data taking is continuously monitored [46]. For this purpose, the vertical aerosol optical depth (VAOD) is measured on an hourly basis using laser shots provided by two central laser facilities (CLFs) [47,48] and cross-checked by lidars [49] operated at each FD site. Finally, clouds are detected via observations in the infrared by cameras installed at each FD site [50] and data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) [51,52] …”

Section: The Pierre Auger Observatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Depth of maximum of air-shower profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory. I. Measurements at energies above1017.8 eV

Aab¹,

Abreu²,

Aglietta³

et al. 2014

Phys. Rev. D

363

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report a study of the distributions of the depth of maximum, Xmax, of extensive air-shower profiles with energies above 10 17.8 eV as observed with the fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The analysis method for selecting a data sample with minimal sampling bias is described in detail as well as the experimental cross-checks and systematic uncertainties. Furthermore, we discuss the detector acceptance and the resolution of the Xmax measurement and provide parameterizations thereof as a function of energy. The energy dependence of the mean and standard 4 deviation of the Xmax-distributions are compared to air-shower simulations for different nuclear primaries and interpreted in terms of the mean and variance of the logarithmic mass distribution at the top of the atmosphere.

show abstract

Section: The Pierre Auger Observatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Depth of maximum of air-shower profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory. I. Measurements at energies above1017.8 eV

Aab¹,

Abreu²,

Aglietta³

et al. 2014

Phys. Rev. D

363

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Particularly, clouds may obscure early parts of the shower profile such that the remaining event profile looks deeply penetrating and, hence, photon-like. Therefore we only use data where any disturbance by clouds can be excluded using information from the IR cloud monitoring cameras [26,27]. In Hybrid-1 all events were individually checked.…”

Section: Data and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Upper limit on the cosmic-ray photon fraction at EeV energies from the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abraham

Abreu

Aglietta

et al. 2009

Astroparticle Physics

131

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tFrom direct observations of the longitudinal development of ultra-high energy air showers performed with the Pierre Auger Observatory, upper limits of 3.8%, 2.4%, 3.5% and 11.7% (at 95% c.l.) are obtained on the fraction of cosmic-ray photons above 2, 3, 5 and 10 EeV ð1 EeV 10 18 eVÞ, respectively. These are the first experimental limits on ultra-high energy photons at energies below 10 EeV. The results complement previous constraints on top-down models from array data and they reduce systematic uncertainties in the interpretation of shower data in terms of primary flux, nuclear composition and protonair cross-section.

show abstract

“…These nights play an important role in the calibration of other atmospheric monitoring devices such as the Central Laser Facility (CLF) [6]. On clear nights, the measured phase function can be described by pure Rayleigh scattering (measurements where this is the case appear as g = 0 in Fig.…”

Section: First Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the atmosphere, must be well-known. At the Pierre Auger Observatory, this is achieved by an extensive program to monitor the atmosphere within the overall FD aperture and measure atmospheric attenuation and scattering properties in the 300 to 400 nm wavelength band recorded by the FDs [4,5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of the aerosol phase function at the Pierre Auger Observatory

BenZvi

Connolly

Matthews

et al. 2007

Astroparticle Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Air fluorescence detectors measure the energy of ultra-high energy cosmic rays by collecting fluorescence light emitted from nitrogen molecules along the extensive air shower cascade. To ensure a reliable energy determination, the light signal needs to be corrected for atmospheric effects, which not only attenuate the signal, but also produce a non-negligible background component due to scattered Cherenkov light and multiple-scattered light. The correction requires regular measurements of the aerosol attenuation length and the aerosol phase function, defined as the probability of light scattered in a given direction. At the Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargüe, Argentina, the phase function is measured on an hourly basis using two Aerosol Phase Function (APF) light sources. These sources direct a UV light beam across the field of view of the fluorescence detectors; the phase function can be extracted from the image of the shots in the fluorescence detector cameras. This paper describes the design, current status, standard operation procedure, and performance of the APF system at the Pierre Auger Observatory.

show abstract

The Central Laser Facility at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Cited by 79 publications

References 5 publications

Depth of maximum of air-shower profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory. I. Measurements at energies above1017.8 eV

Depth of maximum of air-shower profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory. I. Measurements at energies above1017.8 eV

Upper limit on the cosmic-ray photon fraction at EeV energies from the Pierre Auger Observatory

Measurement of the aerosol phase function at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About