Atmospheric monitor for Telescope Array experiment

T Tomida,H Tokuno,D Oku,M Chikawa,M Fukushima,D Ikeda,H Shibata,K Honda,Y Tsunesada,S Udo,J Matthews,S Ogio,K.-H Kampert,B Pattison,R Engel

doi:10.1051/epjconf/20135310003

Abstract

The atmospheric monitoring is very important for the observation of air shower by air fluorescence technique. In the Telescope Array (TA) experiment, LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) system and CLF (Central Laser Facility) system have been used for the measurement of atmospheric transparency. The LIDAR system is located in the southeast of TA site. The CLF is located in the center of the TA site. The usefulness of the CLF and LIDAR systems is demonstrated by analyzing the time variation of atmospheric transparency with the systems. The two atmospheric monitor systems are complementary. Therefore, monitoring efficiency is advanced by a new LIDAR system that was installed at CLF system. Clouds are observed with CCD camera, IR camera and eye scan visual check. In addition, we have also measured atmospheric parameters at the ground level using several weather systems.

Highlights

In the Telescope Array (TA) experiment, LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) system and CLF (Central Laser Facility) system have been used for the measurement of atmospheric transparency
The LIDAR system is located in the southeast of TA site
The usefulness of the CLF and LIDAR systems is demonstrated by analyzing the time variation of atmospheric transparency with the systems

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The calibration of this loss due to scattering is very important for the calibration of the FDs. In TA, we employ a variety of measuring systems for atmospheric monitoring. In TA, we employ a variety of measuring systems for atmospheric monitoring The second laser system is the CLF which is located at the geometric center of all three FD stations.[2, 3] It fires a vertical beam of UV light, the scattered photons are seen by telescopes at all three FDs. In FD observation, cloud reduces the capacity of the observation and the quality of the observation. IR camera is installed near the LIDAR system. CCD cameras are installed at several FD stations and CLF. Weather monitors are installed in several FD stations and CLF

LIDAR system

CLF system

Comparison of LIDAR and CLF

CONCLUSION