E. Kuznetsov

POEMMA: Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission is being designed to establish charged-particle astronomy with ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmogenic tau neutrinos (CTNs). The study of UHECRs and CTNs from space will yield orders-of-magnitude increase in statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies, and the observation of the cosmogenic flux of neutrinos for a range of UHECR models. These observations should solve the long-standing puzzle of the origin of the highest energy particles ever observed, providing a new window onto the most energetic environments and events in the Universe, while studying particle interactions well beyond accelerator energies. The discovery of CTNs will help solve the puzzle of the origin of UHECRs and begin a new field of Astroparticle Physics with the study of neutrino properties at ultra-high energies.

The Calibration of EUSO Balloon using airborne light sources mounted to a Helicopter

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) Balloon was launched from Timmins, Ontario, Canada just at sunset on the moonless night of August 24, 2014. Before the balloon reached its float altitude, a helicopter carrying UV flashers and a UV laser took off. For the next 2.5 hours the helicopter circled under the balloon operating the UV flashers and a UV laser to simulate the signals from extreme energy cosmic rays. Many of these signals were recorded onboard EUSO Balloon. The laser and its use for calibrating EUSO Balloon are discussed in another paper in this conference. In this paper the helicopter operations, the flashers carried on the helicopter and the method for calibrating of EUSO Balloon using these flashers is discussed.

EUSO-Balloon: Observation and Measurement of Tracks from a Laser in a Helicopter

EUSO-Balloon is a prototype detector of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EUSO). EUSO-Balloon was flown successfully as a balloon payload from the Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Launch Facility in Ontario, Canada on 2014 August 24-25 at an altitude of 38 km. To simulate the optical signatures of UV fluorescence photons emitted from cosmic ray air showers generated in the atmosphere, a pulsed UV laser and two UV flashers (LED and Xe) were used. These sources were fired in the instrument field of view for about 2 hours from a helicopter that circled at an altitude of 3 km under the balloon. UV signals were effectively detected, including 270 laser track events. We describe the helicopter laser system and the geometric reconstruction of the laser events that were generated by this system. We report here on the reconstruction of the laser events starting from the information contained in the observed tracks. We note that this work represents the first observation and measurement of aircraft based laser tracks by an optical fluorescence detector flown at near space altitudes.