Speaker
Description
Summary (Additional text describing your work. Can be pasted here or give an URL to a PDF document):
D. Nitz is the Scientific Spokesperson for the Northern Site of the Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger North).
Planning for Auger North has been going on for several years, a design report has been produced, and
construction proposals have been submitted in several countries. The project appears on both US and
European roadmaps.
D. Nitz also leads the design effort for the Auger North Communications System. Differences
in the topography of the Southern and Northern sites require replacing the Auger South approach in which detector stations communicate directly to base stations at communications towers , with a peer-to-peer network based on the sensor-net paradigm. We have developed the Wireless Architecture for Hard Real-Time Embedded Networks (WAHREN) paradigm for Auger North. The presentation will describe this paradigm along with the associated communications hardware that is being developed.
Other advances are being made. The Surface Detector water Cherenkov station design has been modified to increase the dynamic range of the PMTs, and to add insulation to withstand the colder Colorado winters. Advances in Fluorescence Detector calibration and atmospheric monitoring are being pursued to allow the Fluorescence Detector stations to be situated farther apart. The electronics systems and enclosures for the Fluorescence Detector stations have been updated. These advances will also be described.
Many of the aspects of the updated instrumentation will be tested in a Research and Development Array (RDA) that is being constructed at the Southeast Colorado site. The plans and progress for the RDA will be presented.
