Operations of the Pierre Auger Observatory

PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION; A. MARIAZZI

Berlin

Conferencia; 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021); 2021

The construction of the first stage of the Pierre Auger Observatory, designed for research ofultra-high energy cosmic rays, began in 2001 with a prototype system. The Observatory has beencollecting data since early 2004 and was completed in 2008. The Observatory is situated at 1400 mabove sea level near Malargüe, (Mendoza province) in western Argentina, covering a vast plain of3000 km2, known as the Pampa Amarilla. The Observatory consists of a hybrid detector, in whichthere are 1660 water-Cherenkov stations, forming the Surface Detector (SD) and 27 peripheralatmospheric fluorescence telescopes, comprising the Fluorescence Detector (FD). Over time, theAuger Observatory has been enhanced with different R&D prototypes and is recently being to animportant upgrade called AugerPrime. In the present contribution, the general operations of theSD and FD will be described. In particular the FD shift procedure - executable locally in Malargüeor remotely by teams in control rooms abroad within the Collaboration - and the newly SD shifts(operating since 2019) will be explained. Additionally, the SD and FD maintenance campaigns,as well as the data taking and data handling at a basic level, will be reported.