Impact of Atmospheric Effects on the Energy Reconstruction of Air Showers Observed by the Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION, INCLUYE S. MOLLERACH

JOURNAL OF INSTRUMENTATION

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017

1748-0221

Atmospheric conditions, such as the pressure (P), temperature (T) or airdensity ($\rho \propto P/T$), affect the development of extended airshowers initiated by energetic cosmic rays. We study the impact of theatmospheric variations on the reconstruction of air showers with datafrom the arrays of surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory,considering separately the one with detector spacings of 1500 m and theone with 750 m spacing. We observe modulations in the event rates thatare due to the influence of the air density and pressure variations onthe measured signals, from which the energy estimators are obtained. Weshow how the energy assignment can be corrected to account for suchatmospheric effects.