Atmospheric monitoring with LIDARs at the Pierre Auger Observatory

摘要

One of the techniques adopted by the Pierre Auger Observatory to detect ultra high energy cosmic rays is based on air fluorescence detection. The knowledge of atmospheric properties during data acquisition is of primary importance. Together with other instruments, a system of four steerable elastic LIDARs, currently in operation, and a Raman LIDAR, that has taken data for about one year, provide measurements of the cloud coverage and of the aerosol optical transmission. This paper describes the hardware designs, the operational procedures, and the analyses performed on the collected data: aerosol optical properties and their vertical distributions.