A balloon-borne prototype for demonstrating the concept of JEM-EUSO

• DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2013.11.049
• Publication Date: 2013-12-05T19:16:17Z
• Authors: P. von Ballmoos; A. Santangelo; J.H. Adams; P. Barrillon; J. Bayer; M. Bertaina; F. Cafagna; M. Casolino; S. Dagoret; P. Danto; G. Distratis; M. Dupieux; A. Ebersoldt; T. Ebisuzaki; J. Evrard; Ph. Gorodetzky; A. Haungs; A. Jung; Y. Kawasaki; G. Medina-Tanco; B. Mot; G. Osteria; E. Parizot; I.H. Park; P. Picozza; G. Prévôt; H. Prieto; M. Ricci; M.D. Rodríguez Frías; G. Roudil; V. Scotti; J. Szabelski; Y. Takizawa; K. Tusno
• Keywords: [SDU.ASTR.CO] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; [PHYS.ASTR.HE]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]; Balloon-borne instrumentation; [PHYS.ASTR.IM]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; [SDU.ASTR.HE] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]; Extragalactic cosmic-rays; [SDU.ASTR.CO]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; Physics; [SDU.ASTR.HE]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]; ddc:530; Ultra-high energy cosmic rays; 530; 7. Clean energy; 520; [SDU.ASTR.IM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; [PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; 03 medical and health sciences; [SDU.ASTR.IM] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; 0302 clinical medicine; [PHYS.ASTR.CO] Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/530; [PHYS.ASTR.IM] Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; [PHYS.ASTR.HE] Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]

EUSO-BALLOON has been conceived as a pathfinder for JEM-EUSO, a mission concept for a space-borne wide-field telescope monitoring the Earth's nighttime atmosphere with the objective of recording the ultraviolet light from tracks initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Through a series of stratospheric balloon flights performed by the French Space Agency CNES, EUSO-BALLOON will serve as a test-bench for the key technologies of JEM-EUSO. EUSO-BALLOON shall perform an end-to-end test of all subsystems and components, and prove the global detection chain while improving our knowledge of the atmospheric and terrestrial ultraviolet background. The balloon-instrument also has the potential to detect for the first time UV-light generated by atmospheric air-shower from above, marking a milestone in the development of UHECR science, and paving the way for any future large scale, space-based ultra-high energy cosmic ray observatory.