Atmosphärische Einflüsse auf die Entwicklung und Beobachtung ausgedehnter Luftschauer, welche durch die ultrahochenergetische kosmische Strahlung induziert werden

• Applicant: Dr. Bianca Keilhauer
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: from 2005 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5441576

• Final Report Year: 2008

Final Report Abstract

Highest energy cosmic rays are messengers from the deep universe; their particle type, energy, and direction indicate what processes happen in outer space. Entering the Earth's atmosphere, cosmic rays initiate extensive air showers in which particle reactions occur at energies high above man-made particle accelerators. The challenge is to understand air showers in detail to reconstruct the information about the primary particle. The atmosphere is an integral part of any detector system using extensive air showers. The longitudinal and lateral development is affected by local atmospheric conditions such as layering of air density and temperature. The optical emissions of extensive air showers are even more influenced by the atmosphere, in the emission and transmission towards the detector. Within this project, the atmospheric conditions at the site of an air shower experiment, which has been chosen to be the Pampa Amarilla, Argentina, the southern part of the Pierre Auger Observatory, have been investigated. We set up a balloon launching station (BLS), from where meteorological radio soundings are started. With this technique, profiles of air temperature, pressure, humidity and wind are obtained. These data were used to develop socalled Malargüe Monthly Models: However at the first attempt of modelling, the data statistics of local radio soundings was too low so that we combined our data with information from two other radio soundings stations at distances of about 500 to 650 km away from Malargüe. Due to continuous data taking about every five days, we could gather now sufficient data to update the models to new Malargüe Monthly Models. A major part of this project was related to studies about the fluorescence emission in the Earth's atmosphere. We could improve the mathematical description of the emission processes in dependence on air temperature, pressure and humidity. With two different types of experiments, we could also obtain more detailed and spectrally resolved data about fluorescence yield and its dependences on temperature, pressure and humidity. All these efforts were presented at the 5th Fluorescence Workshop in El Escoriai - Madrid in September 2007. We - Arqueros, Hörandel, and myself - organised this workshop in order to discuss and summarize the achievements of all working groups around the world on this topic. Finally we could publish a summary of the current status of air fluorescence relevant for cosmic ray detection as well as a review of pioneering experiments and proceedings of all working groups around the world. The knowledge obtained during this project is now implemented in the reconstruction software of the Pierre Auger Observatory.

Publications

• Fluoreszenz-Emission in Abhängigkeit von atmosphärischen Bedingungen B. Keilhauer, J. Blümer, R. Engel, H. Klages (Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft, T708.9, Dortmund, (2006))
  
  
• Air fluorescence yield dependence on atmospheric parameters M. Ave et al, AIRFLY Collaboration (Proc. 30th Int. Cos. Ray Conf., Merida Yucatan, Mexico, (2007), in press)
  
  
• Air Fluorescence Relevant for Cosmic-Ray Detection - Review of Pioneering Measurements F. Arqueros, J.R. Hörandel, B. Keilhauer (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 23 (Siehe online unter: arXiv:0807.3844)
  
  
• Air Fluorescence Relevant for Cosmic-Ray Detection - Summary of the 5th Fluorescence Workshop, El Escoriai 2007 F. Arqueros, J.R. Hörandel, B. Keilhauer (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 1 (Siehe online unter: arXiv:0807.3760)
  
  
• Höhenabhängigkeit der Fluoreszenz-Emissionen von ausgedehnten Luftschauern B. Keilhauer et al. (Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft, T85.2, Freiburg, (2008))
  
  
• Spectrally Resolved Pressure Dependence Measurements of Air Fluorescence Emission with AIRFLY M. Ave et al., AIRFLY Collaboration (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 41)
  
  
• A Novel Method for the Absolute Fluorescence Yield Measurement by AIRFLY M. Ave et al., AIRFLY Collaboration (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 55)
  
  
• Altitude dependence of fluorescence light emission by extensive air showers B. Keilhauer, J. Blümer, R. Engel, H. Klages (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 99 (Siehe online unter: arXiv:0801.4200)
  
  
• Anwendung kontinuierlicher Atmosphärenmessungen auf die Interpretation von Luftschauer- Observablen B. Keilhauer et al. (Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft, T505.8, Heidelberg, (2007))
  
  
• Atmosphärische Einflüsse bei der Luftschauer-Rekonstruktion des Pierre Auger Observatoriums B. Keilhauer, R. Engel, H. Klages, M. Risse (Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft, T207.3, Dortmund, (2006))
  
  
• Energy Dependence of Air Fluorescence Yield Measurements by AIRFLY M. Ave et al., AIRFLY Collaboration (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 46)
  
  
• Impact of varying atmospheric profiles on extensive air shower observation: fluorescence light emission and energy reconstruction B. Keilhauer, J. Blümer, R. Engel, H.O. Klages (Astropart. Phys. 25 (2006) 259; astro-ph/0511153, (2005))
  
  
• Measurement of the pressure dependence of air fluorescence emission induced by electrons M. Ave et al., AIRFLY Collaboration (Astropart. Phys. 28 (2007) 41; astro-ph/0703132, (2007))
  
  
• Proceedings of the 5th Fluorescence Workshop, El Escoriai 2007 F. Arqueros, J.R. Hörandel, B. Keilhauer, guest editors (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597, (2008))
  
  
• Temperature and Humidity Dependence of Air Fluorescence Yield Measured by AIRFLY M. Ave et al., AIRFLY Collaboration (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 597 (2008) 50)
  
  
• The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory - a Calorimeter for UHECR B. Keilhauer for the Pierre Auger Collaboration (Proc. XII Int. Conf. on Calorimetry in High Energy Physics (S. R. Magill and R. Yoshida (Eds.)), Chicago, USA, AIP Conf. Proc. Vol. 867, p. 175, (2006); astro-ph/0608074, (2006))
  
  
• Variation of the shower lateral spread with air temperature at the ground B. Wilczynska, R. Engel, P. Homola, B. Keilhauer, H. Klages, J. Pekala, H. Wilczynski (Proc. SOthth Int. Cos. Ray Conf., Merida Yucatan, Mexico, (2007), in press)