Terzina on board NUSES: a pathfinder for EAS Cherenkov Light Detection from space

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the Terzina telescope as a part of the NUSES space mission. This telescope aims to detect Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) through the Cherenkov light emission from the extensive air showers (EAS) that they create in the Earth's atmosphere. The Cherenkov photons are aligned along the shower axis inside about $\sim 0.2-1^{\circ }$, so that they become detectable by Terzina when it points towards the Earth's limb. A sun-synchronous orbit will allow the telescope to observe only the night side of the Earth's atmosphere. In this contribution, we focus on the description of the telescope detection goals, geometry, optical design and its photon detection camera composed of Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs). Moreover, we describe the full Monte Carlo simulation chain developed to estimate Terzina's performance for UHECR detection. The estimate of the radiation damage and light background rates, the readout electronics and trigger logic are briefly described. Terzina will be able to study the potential for future physics missions devoted to UHECR detection and to UHE neutrino astronomy. It is a pathfinder for missions like POEMMA or future constellations of similar satellites to NUSES.

References in corpus (4)

• Cosmic Ray Spectrum and Composition from PeV to EeV Using 3 Years of Data From IceTop and IceCube
• Modeling of the Tau and Muon Neutrino-induced Optical Cherenkov Signals from Upward-moving Extensive Air Showers
• Suppression of the optical crosstalk in a multi-channel silicon photomultiplier array
• The POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) Observatory

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The EUSO-SPB2 Cherenkov Telescope -- Flight Performance and Preliminary Results
• The SST-1M imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope for gamma-ray astrophysics
• Performance and radiation damage mitigation strategy for silicon photomultipliers on LEO space missions