Measurement of Aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Abstract

The air fluorescence detectors (FDs) of the Pierre Auger Observatory are vital for the determination of the air shower energy scale. To compensate for variations in atmospheric conditions that affect the energy measurement, the Observatory operates an array of monitoring instruments to record hourly atmospheric conditions across the detector site, an area exceeding 3,000 square km. This paper presents results from four instruments used to characterize the aerosol component of the atmosphere: the Central Laser Facility (CLF), which provides the FDs with calibrated laser shots; the scanning backscatter lidars, which operate at three FD sites; the Aerosol Phase Function monitors (APFs), which measure the aerosol scattering cross section at two FD locations; and the Horizontal Attenuation Monitor (HAM), which measures the wavelength dependence of aerosol attenuation.

arXiv commentContribution to the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Merida Mexico, July 2007; 4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Measurement of the Aerosol Phase Function at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays above 10^18 eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Upper limit on the cosmic-ray photon fraction at EeV energies from the Pierre Auger Observatory
• A Study of the Effect of Molecular and Aerosol Conditions in the Atmosphere on Air Fluorescence Measurements at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Origin of atmospheric aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory using studies of air mass trajectories in South America
• 3D simulation for Cherenkov emissions in Extensive Air Showers