Speaker
Description
Rejection of cloud-contaminated data is a complex and important process for the Pierre Auger Observatory’s fluorescence detector, combining information from several sources, including infra-red cameras, lidars, and satellite imaging. With the deteriorating quality of the infra-red cameras and challenges in using other sources, we propose a new method. We use continuous calibration measurements gathered by the Fluorescence Detector over the lifetime of the Observatory to build a large database of night sky background fluxes for each pixel across 27 telescopes. Using this database, we generate the expected background flux and define cloud rejection thresholds as a function of local sidereal time. Through simple geometric analysis, we construct boolean cloud-contamination masks. We will present details of the method, and results showing consistency in cloudiness measured by different telescopes across the Observatory. Comparisons with infra-red and satellite methods will also be presented.
| Collaboration(s) | The Pierre Auger Collaboration |
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