Abstract
Air fluorescence measurements of cosmic ray energy must be corrected for attenuation of the atmosphere. In this paper, we show that the air-showers themselves can yield a measurement of the aerosol attenuation in terms of optical depth, time-averaged over extended periods. Although the technique lacks statistical power to make the critical hourly measurements that only specialized active instruments can achieve, we note the technique does not depend on absolute calibration of the detector hardware, and requires no additional equipment beyond the fluorescence detectors that observe the air showers. This paper describes the technique, and presents results based on analysis of 1258 air-showers observed in stereo by the High Resolution Fly's Eye over a four year span.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 93-97 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Astroparticle Physics |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2006 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
Keywords
- Aerosol optical depth
- Aerosols
- Atmosphere
- Extensive air-showers
- HiRes