ADVANCES OF THE MULTIANGLE LIDAR FOR CTA OBSERVATORY AT CEILAP.

JUAN PALLOTTA; PABLO ROBERTO RISTORI; LIDIA ANA OTERO; FRANCISCO GONZÁLEZ; JUAN CARLOS DWORNICZAK; RAÚL D'ELIA; EZEQUIEL PAWELKO; FERNANDO CHOUZA; ALBERTO ETCHEGOYEN; EDUARDO QUEL

Porta Heli

Conferencia; 26th International and Laser Radar Conference (ILRC 2012); 2012

Laser Remote Sensing Unit (LRSU) Physics Department National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)

At CEILAP CITEDEF-CONICET, a multiangle lidar is under development to measure the aerosol extinction coefficient in the frame of the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) Project, actually in the preparatory phase. CTA is an initiative to build the next generation of ground-based instruments to collect very high energy gamma-ray radiation (> 10 GeV). The atmospheric conditions are of major interest to CTA, and lidars are requested to acquire atmospheric profiles fast, accurately and in the line of sight of the event. These systems play a major role measuring the atmospheric optical depth in any direction, by both detecting the overall cloud coverage and measuring the atmospheric opacity due to aerosol and clouds over the Observatory. The location of this astronomical facility will be selected after a careful study of the candidate sites, regarding the latitude, altitude, the atmospheric conditions, and the available local infrastructure. At the Southern hemisphere, Argentina is one of the candidate countries for the installation of the CTA Observatory. The places proposed are ?CASLEO?, located in San Juan state and ?San Antonio de los Cobres?, in Salta. This work, reviews Observatory requirements and advances for the lidar system and the data acquisition software.