Identifying clouds over the Pierre Auger Observatory using infrared satellite data

Authors

P. Abreu, LIP - Lisboa
M. Aglietta, Università degli Studi di Torino
M. Ahlers, University of Wisconsin-Madison
E. J. Ahn, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
I. F.M. Albuquerque, Universidade de Sao Paulo - USP
I. Allekotte, Centro Atomico Bariloche
J. Allen, New York University
P. Allison, The Ohio State University
A. Almela, Universidad Nacional de San Martin
J. Alvarez Castillo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
J. Alvarez-Muñiz, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
R. Alves Batista, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
M. Ambrosio, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
A. Aminaei, Radboud University Nijmegen
L. Anchordoqui, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
S. Andringa, LIP - Lisboa
T. Antičić, Institute Ruder Boskovic
C. Aramo, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
F. Arqueros, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
H. Asorey, Centro Atomico Bariloche
P. Assis, LIP - Lisboa
J. Aublin, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies
M. Ave, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
M. Avenier, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie de Grenoble
G. Avila, Pierre Auger Observatory
A. M. Badescu, University Politehnica of Bucharest
K. B. Barber, The University of Adelaide
A. F. Barbosa, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
R. Bardenet, Laboratoire de l'Accélérateur Linéaire
B. Baughman, The Ohio State University
J. Bäuml, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus North
C. Baus, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus North

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-25-2013

Abstract

We describe a new method of identifying night-time clouds over the Pierre Auger Observatory using infrared data from the Imager instruments on the GOES-12 and GOES-13 satellites. We compare cloud identifications resulting from our method to those obtained by the Central Laser Facility of the Auger Observatory. Using our new method we can now develop cloud probability maps for the 3000 km2 of the Pierre Auger Observatory twice per hour with a spatial resolution of ∼2.4 km by ∼5.5 km. Our method could also be applied to monitor cloud cover for other ground-based observatories and for space-based observatories. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication Title

Astroparticle Physics

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