Calibrating laser test-beams for cosmic-ray observatories

Abstract

Pulsed UV lasers can provide useful "testbeams" for observatories that use optical detectors, especially fluorescence detectors, to measure high energy cosmic-rays. The light observed by the detector is proportional to the energy of the laser pulse. Since the absolute laser energy can be measured locally, a well-calibrated laser offers a practical way to test the photometric calibration of the cosmic-ray detector including atmospheric corrections. This poster will describe a robotic system for laser polarization and energy calibration. Laboratory measurements of laser energies and polarizations by energy probes from different manufactures will be presented