https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921602001
Measurements of Horizontal Air Showers with the Auger Engineering Radio Array
1
Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Gaußstraße 20,
42119 Wuppertal, Germany
2
Observatorio Pierre Auger, Av. San Martín Norte 304, 5613 Malargüe,
Argentina
★ e-mail: j.horandel@astro.ru.nl
★★ Full author list at http://www.auger.org/archive/authors_2018_06.html
Published online: 24 September 2019
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest observatory for the detection of cosmic rays. With the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) we measure the emitted radio signal of extensive air showers and reconstruct properties of the primary cosmic rays. For horizontal air showers (zenith angles larger than 60°) the signal is distributed over a large area of more than several km2. Therefore, detection of air showers using a sparse radio antenna array, compatible with the 1500 m distance between the 1600 surface detector stations, is possible. The radio technique is sensitive to the electromagnetic component of air showers. Combining radio detection with particle information from the surface detector of the Observatory, which at large zenith angles mostly detects muons, allows to study the cosmic ray composition for horizontal air showers.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
