The Earth's Gamma-ray Albedo as observed by EGRET

摘要

The Earth's high energy gamma-ray emission is caused by cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere. The EGRET detector on-board the CGRO satellite is only the second experiment (after SAS-2) to provide a suitable dataset for the comprehensive study of this emission. Approximately 60% of the EGRET dataset consist of gamma photons from the Earth. This conference contribution presents the first results from the first analysis project to tackle this large dataset. Ultimate purpose is to develop an analytical model of the Earth's emission for use in the GLAST project. The results obtained so far confirm the earlier results from SAS-2 and extend them in terms of statistical precision and angular resolution.