scholarly journals FRAM—The Robotic Telescope for the Monitoring of the Wavelength Dependence of the Extinction: Description of Hardware, Data Analysis, and Results

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Prouza ◽  
Martin Jelínek ◽  
Petr Kubánek ◽  
Jan Ebr ◽  
Petr Trávníček ◽  
...  

FRAM—F/(Ph)otometric Robotic Atmospheric Monitor is one of the atmospheric monitoring instruments at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. FRAM is an optical telescope equipped with CCD cameras and photometer, and it automatically observes a set of selected standard stars. Primarily, FRAM observations are used to obtain the wavelength dependence of the light extinction. FRAM telescope is also able to observe secondary astronomical targets, and namely the detection of optical counterparts of gamma-ray bursts has already proven to be successful. Finally, a wide-field CCD camera of FRAM can be used for rapid monitoring of atmospheric conditions along the track of particularly interesting cosmic ray showers. The hardware setup of the telescope, its software system, data taking procedures, and results of analysis are described in this paper.

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Lawrence ◽  
M. C. B. Ashley ◽  
A. Bunker ◽  
R. Bouwens ◽  
D. Burgarella ◽  
...  

AbstractPILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the distant (redshift >1) Universe, that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. The potential for PILOT to detect the first populations of stars to form in the early Universe, via infrared projects searching for pair-instability supernovae and gamma-ray burst afterglows, is investigated. Two projects are proposed to examine the assembly and evolution of structure in the Universe: an infrared survey searching for the first evolved galaxies at high redshift, and an optical survey aimed at characterising moderate-redshift galaxy clusters. Finally, a large-area weak-lensing survey and a program to obtain supernova infrared light-curves are proposed to examine the nature and evolution of dark energy and dark matter.


Author(s):  
Maria Concetta Maccarone ◽  
Giovanni La Rosa ◽  
Osvaldo Catalano ◽  
Salvo Giarrusso ◽  
Alberto Segreto ◽  
...  

AbstractUVscope is an instrument, based on a multi-pixel photon detector, developed to support experimental activities for high-energy astrophysics and cosmic ray research. The instrument, working in single photon counting mode, is designed to directly measure light flux in the wavelengths range 300-650 nm. The instrument can be used in a wide field of applications where the knowledge of the nocturnal environmental luminosity is required. Currently, one UVscope instrument is allocated onto the external structure of the ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov telescope devoted to the gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. Being co-aligned with the ASTRI-Horn camera axis, UVscope can measure the diffuse emission of the night sky background simultaneously with the ASTRI-Horn camera, without any interference with the main telescope data taking procedures. UVscope is properly calibrated and it is used as an independent reference instrument for test and diagnostic of the novel ASTRI-Horn telescope.


2019 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 02010
Author(s):  
Stanislav Stefanik ◽  
Dalibor Nosek

The future ground-based gamma-ray observatory, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will require reliable monitoring of the atmosphere which is an inherent part of the detector. We discuss here the implementation of the extended method of the Cherenkov Transparency Coeffcient for the atmospheric calibration for the CTA. The method estimates the atmospheric transmission of Cherenkov light, relying on the measurement of the rates of cosmic ray-induced air showers that trigger different pairs of telescopes. We examine the performance of our approach utilizing Monte Carlo simulations assuming various atmospheric conditions and CTA observation configurations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1713-1721 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHEN CAO

Gamma ray source detection above 30 TeV is an encouraging approach for finding galactic cosmic ray origins. All sky survey for gamma ray sources using wide field of view detector is essential for population accumulation for various types of sources above 100 GeV. To target the goals, the ARGO-YBJ experiment has been established. Significant progresses have been made in the experiment. A large air shower detector array in an area of 1 km2 is proposed to boost the sensitivity. Hybrid detections with multi-techniques will allow a good discrimination between different types of primary particles, including photons and protons, thus enable an energy spectrum measurement for individual species. Fluorescence light detector array will extend the spectrum measurement to 100 PeV and higher where the second knee is located. An energy scale determined by balloon experiments at 10 TeV will be propagated to ultra high energy cosmic ray experiments.


Author(s):  
T. Sun ◽  
C. Zhang ◽  
Y. Ping ◽  
X. Wu

Motivated by the promising era of time-domain and multi-messenger astronomy, CHanging Event Survey (CHES) is designed to join the ongoing campaign with a powerful wide-field optical telescope array. CHES project aims to monitor the transient universe, including gamma-ray bursts, fast radio bursts, the electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational waves events (kilonova), supernova, variable stars, near-earth objects, and space debris. The array consists of 12 individual wide field refractors with aperture 280 mm, covering 600 square degrees in total. In the same project, two 800 mm prime focus telescopes can be triggered for follow-up observation. Furthermore, CHES can effectively monitor 300 square deg in a dual band simultaneously, which enable the array to do candidate identification and follow-up for the triggers from LIGO/Virgo collaboration, Fermi, Swift, GECam and SVOM satellites.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Lawrence ◽  
M. C. B. Ashley ◽  
J. Bailey ◽  
D. Barrado y Navascues ◽  
T. R. Bedding ◽  
...  

AbstractPILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the nearby Universe that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. Several projects are proposed that examine stellar populations in nearby galaxies and stellar clusters in order to gain insight into the formation and evolution processes of galaxies and stars. A series of projects will investigate the molecular phase of the Galaxy and explore the ecology of star formation, and investigate the formation processes of stellar and planetary systems. Three projects in the field of exoplanet science are proposed: a search for free-floating low-mass planets and dwarfs, a program of follow-up observations of gravitational microlensing events, and a study of infrared light-curves for previously discovered exoplanets. Three projects are also proposed in the field of planetary and space science: optical and near-infrared studies aimed at characterising planetary atmospheres, a study of coronal mass ejections from the Sun, and a monitoring program searching for small-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite debris items.


Author(s):  
Alessandro De Angelis ◽  
Vincent Tatischeff ◽  
Andrea Argan ◽  
Søren Brandt ◽  
Andrea Bulgarelli ◽  
...  

AbstractThe energy range between about 100 keV and 1 GeV is of interest for a vast class of astrophysical topics. In particular, (1) it is the missing ingredient for understanding extreme processes in the multi-messenger era; (2) it allows localizing cosmic-ray interactions with background material and radiation in the Universe, and spotting the reprocessing of these particles; (3) last but not least, gamma-ray emission lines trace the formation of elements in the Galaxy and beyond. In addition, studying the still largely unexplored MeV domain of astronomy would provide for a rich observatory science, including the study of compact objects, solar- and Earth-science, as well as fundamental physics. The technological development of silicon microstrip detectors makes it possible now to detect MeV photons in space with high efficiency and low background. During the last decade, a concept of detector (“ASTROGAM”) has been proposed to fulfil these goals, based on a silicon hodoscope, a 3D position-sensitive calorimeter, and an anticoincidence detector. In this paper we stress the importance of a medium size (M-class) space mission, dubbed “ASTROMEV”, to fulfil these objectives.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. 299-317
Author(s):  
E. STRAZZERI ◽  
O. CATALANO ◽  
B. SBARUFATTI

In the context of detection of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) showers from space the details of fluorescence light production and transmission in the atmosphere are given. An analytical model of the fluorescence yield, in dependence on nitrogen molecular parameters and the atmospheric conditions, is presented. Seasonal and geographical variations of the total fluorescence photon yield between 300 nm and 400 nm in air excited by 0.85 MeV electrons are shown as a function of the altitude, using different atmospheric models. In the frame of a satellite-based UHECR experiment the fluorescence yield has been corrected by the overall atmospheric transmission which takes into account, in the simplest approximation, the wavelength-dependent scattering and absorption of the fluorescence light from air molecules, from stratospheric ozone, and from aerosol. The effect of the atmospheric attenuation on the fluorescence yield is shown as a function of the altitude of the emission point of light.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Wu ◽  
R. Walter ◽  
M. Su ◽  
G. Ambrosi ◽  
P. Azzarello ◽  
...  
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