The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory

THE PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION; GARCIA, B.

NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH A - ACCELERATORS, SPECTROMETERS, DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPAMENT

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 798 p. 172 - 213

0168-9002

P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }The Pierre Auger Observatory, located on a vast, high plain in western Argentina, is the world´s largest cosmic ray  Observatory. The objectives of the Observatory are to probe the origin and characteristics ofVCcosmic rays above 1017eV and to study the interactions of these, the most energetic particles observed in nature. The Auger design features an array of 1660 water Cherenkov particle detector stations spread over 3000 km2 overlooked by 24 air fluorescence telescopes. In addition, three high elevationfluorescence telescopes overlook a 23.5 km2, 61-detector infilled array with 750m spacing. The Observatory has been in successful operation since completion in 2008 and has recorded data from an exposure exceeding 40,000km2sryr.This paper describes the design and performance of the detectors, relateds ubsystems and infrastructure that make up the Observatory