Scientific goals of the LAGO collaboration and its Antarctic node

A.M GULISANO; S. DASSO; O. ARESO; M. PEREIRA

Kuala Lumpur

Conferencia; SCAR 2016 Open Science Conference; 2016

The LAGO Collaboration (Latin American Giant Observatory) is operating a network of water Cherenkovdetectors (WCDs) across nine Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala,Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and Brazil). The LAGO network is recording the energy spectrum and theintegrated flux of atmospheric particles at several sites with different altitudes and geomagnetic rigidity cutoffs.Since the Antarctic continent has the advantage of combining low rigidity cut-offs values and infrastructureto support the operation of WCD, the LAGO collaboration is installing a new node at the Marambio base, inthe Antarctic Peninsula. The low rigidity cut-off at this location will extend the space weather observations ofthe LAGO project. Even more, this site could open a new window to the exploration of possible gamma rayssources at the southern sky.Numerical simulations have been conducted using the CORSIKA code to assess the development ofsecondary particles cascades at the chosen location. Asymptotic arrival directions, taking into account themagnetic field influence, have also been studied.The temperature and pressure height profiles at Marambio (from ground level up to 35km height) have beencharacterized using extensive balloon soundings (from 1998 up to 2014). They have been also comparedwith GDAS (Global Data Assimilation System) data in order to improve the atmosphere profile for thenumerical simulations. Both have been compared to the MODTRAN subarctic models provided by CORSIKA.In the present work we will present these results for the Marambio site along with the scientific and academicobjectives of the LAGO collaboration.