UCIRC2: EUSO-SPB2’s Infrared Cloud Monitor

Kavli Affiliate: Angela V. Olinto

| First 5 Authors: Rebecca Diesing, Alexa Bukowski, Noah Friedlander, Alex Miller, Stephan Meyer

| Summary:

The second generation of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super
Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB2) is a balloon instrument for the detection of ultra
high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with energies above 1 EeV and very high energy
neutrinos with energies above 10 PeV. EUSO-SPB2 consists of two telescopes: a
fluorescence telescope pointed downward for the detection of UHECRs and a
Cherenkov telescope pointed towards the limb for the detection of tau
lepton-induced showers produced by up-going tau neutrinos and background
signals below the limb. Clouds inside the field of view of these telescopes
reduce EUSO-SPB2’s geometric aperture, in particular that of the fluorescence
telescope. For this reason, cloud coverage and cloud-top altitude within the
field of view of the fluorescence telescope must be monitored throughout
data-taking. The University of Chicago Infrared Camera (UCIRC2) will monitor
these clouds using two infrared cameras with response centered at wavelengths
10 and 12 microns. By capturing images at wavelengths spanning the cloud
thermal emission peak, UCIRC2 will measure cloud color-temperatures and thus
cloud-top altitudes. In this contribution, we provide an overview of UCIRC2,
including an update on its construction and a discussion of the techniques used
to calibrate the instrument.

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