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WILLI-AIR experiment is designed to study the muon charge ratio in Extensive Air Showers (EAS) produced by primary cosmic particles with energy lower than 1015 eV. It consists in two parts represented by two existing experiments, WILLI detector and AIR mini-array. The WILLI calorimeter has been built with the aim to measure the atmospheric muons and to discriminate between μ+ and μ-. The experimental method is based on different behavior of negative and positive muons after stopping in the matter. The EAS are measured by the AIR array, composed of 24 stations, each with a detection surface of 1m2 read out by two photomultipliers. In order to use as best as we can the properties of both capabilities, the array configuration was previously established through CORSIKA simulations, being placed at about 50 m from WILLI electromagnetic calorimeter. Fast and integrated electronics have been developed in order to process the signals from PMT's. An MBS system was chosen as a fast DAQ. This document is presenting the evolution of the work on hardware and the current results regarding the electronics capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ARCADE (Atmospheric Research for Climate and Astroparticle DEtection) project is a 3 years project funded by MIUR, that aims to study the aerosol attenuation of UV light in atmosphere using multiple instruments and techniques, as those commonly used in the cosmic rays community: elastic Lidar, Raman Lidar, side-scattering measurements using a distant laser source. All measurements will be acquired on the same air mass at the same time, in a semi-desertic site near Lamar, Colorado (U.S.). For each instrument, multiple analysis techniques will be tested: the target is a better comprehension of the systematics and limits of applicability of each method. The system is composed by a Lidar (elastic+Raman), fully designed and built within this project, and by the Atmospheric Monitoring Telescope (AMT), a telescope for the detection of UV light owned by the Colorado School of Mines. The setup of the two instruments is described in detail here. The project is presently in its third year: the Lidar system has been tested at the University of L'Aquila in February 2014 before shipment to the U.S., and the AMT has been recently reinstalled and tested in Lamar (May 2014). In June/July 2014 the ARCADE group will work out the final setup of the Lidar+AMT system in Lamar and will begin data acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]