Search

The Pierre Auger international collaboration will install two observatories, one in the southern hemisphere and other in the northern hemisphere. Each observatory will consist of two different subsystem: a surface detector array of about 1600 water Cherenkov detectors (WCD) and a set of fluorescence eyes to measure the longitudinal development of air showers. The large area covered by the surface detectors requires efficient calibration and monitoring methods that can be implemented remotely. We present several complementary methods to calibrate and monitor the performance of the individual surface detector stations. We also present some results of the studies made with a full size prototype tank in Puebla, Mexico and in Malargue, Argentina.

The design of the air Cherenkov detector array for the Cerro La Negra site (elevation 4300 m asl) is presented. The most important features of the array are: autonomous operation of the detectors, low power electronics, laser communication lines and power supplied by solar panels and batteries. The joint operation of the array with water Cherenkov extensive air shower (EAS) particle detectors will allow to obtain information on EAS core positions, primary energies, arrival directions of the primary particles, and temporal profiles of the EAS pulses in air Cherenkov and particle detectors. The study of the EAS development above the shower maximum is among the main goals of this experiment.

The KLYPVE optical detector on board the Russian segment of the ISS will observe 10 thousand km2 of the Earth atmosphere registering the extremely high energy cosmic ray (EHECR) particles producing fluorescent tracks in the atmosphere. In this article the design of the detector is presented, including: the Fresnel type mirror of 10 m2 area, the PMT retina of 2500 pixels, the pixel electronics, the data acquisition electronics, and the trigger system. The detector design is suited to conditions of the space experiment (wide range of temperature, short day-night cycle etc). The problem of selection of rare EHECR events in the presence of high intensity background light is discussed.