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Atmospheric Fluorescence

  • Chapter
Extensive Air Showers

Overview

This chapter deals exclusively with atmospheric fluorescence caused by air showers, its production, detection and interpretation. After discussing the basic mechanisms of gas fluorescence, in particular of air and nitrogen fluorescence, including associated quenching effects, we illuminate its role in air shower research. We outline the unique features of atmospheric fluorescence and discuss the detection principle, describe the atmospheric effects of dust and aerosols, scattering processes such as Rayleigh and Mie scattering, and the influence of seasonal pressure changes that cause varying absorption and attenuation of the fluorescence light. The evaluation of the data to determine the energy and composition of the primary radiation is summarized together with specific data. The resulting primary spectrum and conclusions on the primary mass and its energy dependence are presented in Chap. 11.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The typically used wavelength region is 300–400 nm and for this range the contribution of 1N is only about 10%.

  2. 2.

    HiRes had been shut-down in 2006.

  3. 3.

    For an extensive description of the Auger Project that is in partial operation since 2006, see reference Abraham et al. (2004), listed in Chap. 1.

  4. 4.

    Scattering on air molecules.

  5. 5.

    Scattering on aerosols.

  6. 6.

    Typically Mie scattering is less important because the experimental sites are a priori chosen accordingly, however in dusty areas it plays an important role.

  7. 7.

    It is assumed that the shower trajectory points away from the detector, such that no direct Cherenkov light can reach it.

  8. 8.

    Mainly the scattered part since the direct contribution had been strongly reduced by appropriate cuts.

  9. 9.

    Today it is recommended to reconstruct the energy loss (dE/dX) profile from the fluorescence measurements instead of the shower size \(N_{e}(X)\), and to integrate it over the entire trajectory to get the total calorimetric energy of the shower, since dE/dX is more directly related to the fluorescence (Keilhauer, 2006, private communication).

  10. 10.

    In CORSIKA a refined expression is now being used (Keilhauer, 2006, private communication).

  11. 11.

    Note that some authors use for \(E_{\mathrm{crit}} = 81\;\mathrm{MeV}\).

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  1. University of Bern Physikalisches Institut, Sidlerstr. 5, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Prof. Dr. Peter K.F. Grieder

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Grieder, P.K. (2010). Atmospheric Fluorescence. In: Extensive Air Showers. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76941-5_17

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