ULTRA - UV Light Transmission and Reflection in the Atmosphere
The Experiment
The ULTRA (Uv Light Transmission and Reflection in the Atmosphere) experiment
has been designed to provide quantitative measurements of the
reflection/diffusion signal produced by Extensive Air Showers (EAS)
impacting on the Earth surface, overcoming the lack of information
in this specific field. The knowledge of such information for different
surfaces of the EAS' impact will test the possibility to detect
from Space the Cherenkov light produced by the Ultra High Energy
Cosmic Rays (UHECR).
The ULTRA apparatus is composed by two types of detector:
- a small EAS array (ETscope) formed by five scintillators
(using conventional sampling technique) disposed in a centered parallelogram,
and
- an UV optical device (300-400 nm interval) to detect the Cherenkov light,
including:
- two narrow field (±4.5° FoV) detectors (UVscope),
pointing toward the ETscope central station, and
- four wide field (±40° FoV) detectors (Belenos), two of them pointing
to zenith (Belenos-up), the other two pointing to nadir (Belenos-down).
ETscope, UVscope and Belenos operate simultaneously to detect EAS
in coincidence with the UV light reflected/diffused from its impact on sea
surface. The ETscope array allows measuring the core position,
arrival direction and size of the incoming EAS;
the UV devices are used to determine the amount of direct and diffused
coincident Cherenkov light.
The atmospheric transmission properties are also studied using the UV light
detectors and a laser emitter.
Conceived and designed in the framework of the EUSO mission,
ULTRA was firstly implemented and tested (in a partial configuration)
at the sites of Mont-Cenis and Grenoble, France, in various periods
from October 2002 and June 2004. At the sametime, a set of measurements
was performed on Madonie Mountains, near Palermo, Italy,
to test the UVscope performance. Then, ULTRA was fully implemented and a
calibration and optimization phase on the entire apparatus was carried out
in Grenoble, France, with acquisitions during the winter 2004-2005.
The first complete campaign of measurements has been performed at
the Capo Granitola site, Italy, along more than seven months from
Spring to Winter 2005. ULTRA was there mounted with the ETscope and
Belenos setup very close to the Grenoble one, and with the UVscope
observing the center of the array far from it,
at a distance from land of about 50 m and from an altitude of about 10 m asl.
The Capo Granitola campaign was successfully carried out.
Starting from 3 June 2005, the entire apparatus operated under optimal
conditions, giving us useful acquisition data,
suitable for a complete analysis, for more than 300 hours.
The Team
With different commitments and tasks, the following
IASF-Palermo personnel is part of the ULTRA group:
Osvaldo Catalano (ULTRA Respons.) |
|
Gaetano Agnetta |
|
Benedetto Biondo |
|
Giacomo D'Ali Staiti |
|
Salvo Giarrusso |
|
|
Giovanni La Rosa |
|
Maria Concetta Maccarone |
|
Angelo Mangano |
|
Francesco Russo |
|
Alberto Segreto |
|
Contact person:
-
Osvaldo.Catalano at ifc.inaf.it
(ULTRA Responsible)
Selected publications
-
"Detection of the Cerenkov Light diffused by Sea Water with the ULTRA
Experiment",
The ULTRA Collaboration: G. Agnetta, P. Assis, B. Biondo, P. Brogueira,
A. Cappa, O. Catalano, J. Chauvin, G. D'Alì Staiti, M. Dattoli,
M.C. Espirito Santo, L. Fava, P. Galeotti, S. Giarrusso, G. Gugliotta+,
G. La Rosa, D. Lebrun, M.C. Maccarone, A. Mangano, L. Melo,
S. Moreggia, M. Pimenta, F. Russo, O. Saavedra, A. Segreto, J.C. Silva,
P. Stassi, B. Tomè, P. Vallania, C. Vigorito,
Proc. 30th ICRC, Merida, Mexico, 3-11 July 2007 (in press).
-
"Extensive Air Showers and Diffused Cerenkov Light Detection: the ULTRA
Experiment",
The ULTRA Collaboration: G. Agnetta, P. Assis, B. Biondo, P. Brogueira,
A. Cappa, O. Catalano, J. Chauvin, G. D'Alì Staiti, M. Dattoli,
M.C. Espirito Santo, L. Fava, P. Galeotti, S. Giarrusso, G. Gugliotta+,
G. La Rosa, D. Lebrun, M.C. Maccarone, A. Mangano, L. Melo,
S. Moreggia, M. Pimenta, F. Russo, O. Saavedra, A. Segreto, J.C. Silva,
P. Stassi, B. Tomè, P. Vallania, C. Vigorito,
NIM-A, Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A,
Vol.570, pp.22-35, 2007.
-
"ULTRA Experiment - Report on the 'Capo Granitola' Campaign 2005.
Part 2: Measurement of the reflection coefficient",
O. Catalano and M.C. Maccarone,
Int.Rep. IASF-Pa/INAF 1/06, March 14, 2006.
-
"ULTRA Experiment - Report on the Capo Granitola Campaign 2005",
O. Catalano and M.C. Maccarone,
IASF-Pa Report 2/2005, December 2005.
-
"Results from the ULTRA experiment in the framework of the EUSO project",
P. Vallania, G. Agnetta, P. Assis, B. Biondo, P. Brogueira, A. Cappa, O. Catalano, J. Chauvin, G. D'Alì Staiti, M. Dattoli, M.C. Espirito-Santo, L. Fava, P. Galeotti, S. Giarrusso, G. La Rosa, D. Lebrun, M.C. Maccarone, A. Mangano, L. Melo, S. Moreggia, M. Pimenta, F. Russo, J.C. Silva, P. Stassi, B. Tomè, C. Vigorito,
29th ICRC, Pune, India, August 2005.
-
"The ULTRA Experiment: a Supporting Activity for the EUSO Project",
G. Agnetta, P. Assis, C. Berat, B. Biondo, P. Brogueira, A. Cappa, O. Catalano, G. D'Alì Staiti, M.C. Espirito-Santo, L. Fava, M. Gabriele, P. Galeotti, S. Giarrusso, G. Gugliotta, D. Lebrun, A. Mangano, L. Melo, M. Pimenta, F. Russo, O. Saavedra, P. Scarsi, J.C. Silva, P. Stassi, D. Teyssier, B. Tomè, P. Vallania, C. Vigorito,
Proc. 28th ICRC, Universal Academy Press Inc., Vol.HE, pp.1097-1100, 2003.
-
"ULTRA - Technical Report",
O. Catalano, P. Vallania, D. Lebrun, P. Stassi, M. Pimenta, M.C. Espirito-Santo,
EUSO-SEA-REP-001-1, June 2002.
Some useful links
Last Modification: Saturday, February 4 2012
|
