Performance and air-shower reconstruction techniques for the JEM-EUSO mission

In this paper we describe the expected performance of JEM-EUSO. Designed as the first mission to explore the ultra-high energy universe from space, JEM-EUSO will monitor the Earth’s atmosphere at night to record the UV (300–430 nm) tracks generated by the extensive air showers produced by ultra-high energy primary particles developing in the atmosphere. Studies of the expected aperture, the estimated exposure, as well as on the methods to infer arrival direction, energy, and X max of primary particles are presented.