Search

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is located within the Pierre Auger Observatory and currently consists of 24 self-triggered radio stations. Observation of radio signals from cosmic rays is confirmed by the surface detector (SD) stations of the Observatory which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For estimating the cosmic-ray energy we use the maximum absolute value of the measured electric field vector corrected for the incoming direction and the distance to the shower core. Performing a preliminary energy calibration using the SD information, we observe that the defined radio energy estimator provides an approximately linear dependency on the cosmic-ray energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to unveil the mystery of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR's), JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory on-board Japan Experiment Module) will observe extensive air showers induced by UHECR's from the International Space Station orbit with huge acceptance from 2016. Calibration of the JEM-EUSO instrument, which consists of Fresnel optics and 0.3M channel focal surface detector, is very important to discuss the origin of UHECR's precisely with the observed results. In this paper, the calibration system before launch and on-orbit will be reported: the calibration before flight with integrating spheres, on-board calibration light source, and ground light source for on-orbit calibration from ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) operates a multitude of telescopes and instruments at its La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. The most powerful ones are the four 8-m telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). ESO is currently studying an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) with a diameter of the primary mirror of 42 m. This telescope will make use of various techniques of adaptive optics (AO) to counter the perturbing effect of Earth’s atmosphere. Due to the wavelength dependent performance of AO the European ELT (E-ELT) will be most powerful in the near-infrared (IR) domain. A collaboration of ESO and the US Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has successfully established wavelength standards in the emission spectrum of Th-Ar hollow cathode lamps for high resolution spectroscopy. This has been a major advancement for near-IR astronomy, which has traditionally relied on atmospheric features for wavelength calibration. ESO and NIST report on joint efforts to identify and establish the best sources for wavelength calibration for the 2nd generation of VLT instrument and for the E-ELT. To this end we are studying the near-IR spectra of various elements. With the focus of astronomy moving toward IR wavelengths the astronomical community will have a need for a large amount of atomic and molecular data in order to perform the scientific analysis of their data. It will be essential that the long-standing and fruitful collaboration between astrophysics and the atomic and molecular physics community continues in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]