Cloud distribution evaluated by the WRF model during the EUSO-SPB1 flight

K Shinozaki; S Monte; S Ferrarese; M Manfrin; ME Bertaina; A Anzalone; F Bisconti; A Bruno; A Diaz; J Eser; F Fenu; A Michel; M Vrabel; L Wiencke

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201921005006

All issues

Volume 210 (2019)

EPJ Web Conf., 210 (2019) 05006

Abstract

Open Access

Issue		EPJ Web Conf. Volume 210, 2019 Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays 2018 (UHECR 2018)


Article Number		05006
Number of page(s)		6
Section		Detection Techniques
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921005006
Published online		17 May 2019

EPJ Web of Conferences 210, 05006 (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921005006

Cloud distribution evaluated by the WRF model during the EUSO-SPB1 flight

K Shinozaki¹^,2^*, S Monte¹, S Ferrarese¹^,2, M Manfrin¹^,2, ME Bertaina¹^,2, A Anzalone³, F Bisconti², A Bruno³, A Diaz⁴, J Eser⁵, F Fenu¹^,2, A Michel⁶, M Vrabel⁷ and L Wiencke⁵ on behalf of the JEM-EUSO Collaboration

¹ UniversitàDegli Studidi Torino, Turin, Italy
² Istituto Nazionaledi Fisica Nucleare – Sezionedi Torino, Italy
³ INAF – Istitutodi Astrofisica Spazialee Fisica Cosmicadi Palermo, Italy
⁴ IRAP, UniversitédeToulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France
⁵ Colorado School of Mines, Golden, USA
⁶ Observatorie de la Côta d’Azur, Nice, France
⁷ Technical UniversityKosice (TUKE), Kosice, Slovakia

^* e-mail: kenji.shinozaki@to.infn.it

Published online: 17 May 2019

Abstract

EUSO-SPB1 was a balloon-borne mission of the JEM-EUSO (Joint Experiment Missions for Extreme Universe Space Observatory) Program aiming at the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) observations from space. We operated the EUSO-SPB1 telescope consisting of 1 m² Fresnel refractive optics and multi-anode photomultiplier tubes. With a total of 2304 channels, each performed the photon counting every 2.5 µs, allowing for spatiotemporal imaging of the air shower events in an ~ 11°× 11° field of view. EUSO-SPB1 was the first balloon-borne fluorescence detector with a potential to detect air shower events initiated by the EeV energy cosmic rays. On 24 April 2017 UTC, EUSO-SPB1 was launched on the NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon that flew at ~16 – 33 km flight height for ~12 days. Before the flight was terminated, ~27 hours of data acquired in the air shower detection mode were transmitted to the ground. In the present work, we aim at evaluating the role of the clouds during the operation of EUSO-SPB1. We employ the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model to numerically simulate the cloud distribution below EUSO-SPB1. We discuss the key results of the WRF model and the impact of the clouds on the air shower measurement and the efficiency of the cosmic ray observation. The present work is a part of the collaborative effort to estimate the exposure for air shower detections.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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