Speaker
Description
Accurate, height-resolved atmospheric characterization is a critical requirement for the reconstruction of extensive air showers and Cherenkov light in ground-based high-energy astroparticle observatories. Raman lidar systems, based on Nd:YAG laser emitters and elastic plus inelastic (Raman) detection channels, provide direct measurements of vertical profiles of aerosol extinction and backscatter coefficients. This work reviews Raman lidar-based atmospheric observations developed for high-energy astrophysics, with particular reference to results reported for the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). The systems operate typically at 355 nm, with nitrogen and water vapour Raman channels enabling independent retrieval of aerosol extinction coefficients, vertical aerosol optical depth, aerosol volume backscatter coefficient and lidar ratio, as well as, the water vapour mixing ratio profile.
At AUGER and CTAO, these measurements have been used to constrain and evaluate the aerosol-induced systematics on the energy estimation of astroparticles.