Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight

MAGIC, a system of two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, achieves its best performance under dark conditions, i.e. in absence of moonlight or twilight. Since operating the telescopes only during dark time would severely limit the duty cycle, observations are also performed when the Moon is p...

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Autores: Barrio Uña, Juan Abel, Contreras González, José Luis, Domínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco, Fonseca González, María Victoria, Fidalgo, David Friedrich Carreto, López Moya, Marcos, Nievas Rosillo, Mireia
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/18353
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18353
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:359.1
Gamma-ray astronomy
Cherenkov telescopes
Crab nebula
Electricidad
Electrónica (Física)
Física nuclear
2202.03 Electricidad
2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear
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oai_identifier_str oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/18353
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlightBarrio Uña, Juan AbelContreras González, José LuisDomínguez-Adame Acosta, FranciscoFonseca González, María VictoriaFidalgo, David Friedrich CarretoLópez Moya, MarcosNievas Rosillo, Mireia359.1Gamma-ray astronomyCherenkov telescopesCrab nebulaElectricidadElectrónica (Física)Física nuclear2202.03 Electricidad2207 Física Atómica y NuclearMAGIC, a system of two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, achieves its best performance under dark conditions, i.e. in absence of moonlight or twilight. Since operating the telescopes only during dark time would severely limit the duty cycle, observations are also performed when the Moon is present in the sky. Here we develop a dedicated Moon-adapted analysis to characterize the performance of MAGIC under moonlight. We evaluate energy threshold, angular resolution and sensitivity of MAGIC under different background light levels, based on Crab Nebula observations and tuned Monte Carlo simulations. This study includes observations taken under non-standard hardware configurations, such as reducing the camera photomultiplier tubes gain by a factor ∼1.7 (reduced HV settings) with respect to standard settings (nominal HV) or using UV-pass filters to strongly reduce the amount of moonlight reaching the cameras of the telescopes. The Crab Nebula spectrum is correctly reconstructed in all the studied illumination levels, that reach up to 30 times brighter than under dark conditions. The main effect of moonlight is an increase in the analysis energy threshold and in the systematic uncertainties on the flux normalization. The sensitivity degradation is constrained to be below 10%, within 15-30% and between 60 and 80% for nominal HV, reduced HV and UV-pass filter observations, respectively. No worsening of the angular resolution was found. Thanks to observations during moonlight, the maximal duty cycle of MAGIC can be increased from ∼18%, under dark nights only, to up to∼40% in total with only moderate performance degradation.Elsevier Science BVUniversidad Complutense de Madrid20172017-09-0120172017-09-01journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18353reponame:Docta Complutenseinstname:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/183532026-06-02T12:44:21Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
title Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
spellingShingle Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
Barrio Uña, Juan Abel
359.1
Gamma-ray astronomy
Cherenkov telescopes
Crab nebula
Electricidad
Electrónica (Física)
Física nuclear
2202.03 Electricidad
2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear
title_short Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
title_full Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
title_fullStr Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
title_full_unstemmed Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
title_sort Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Barrio Uña, Juan Abel
Contreras González, José Luis
Domínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco
Fonseca González, María Victoria
Fidalgo, David Friedrich Carreto
López Moya, Marcos
Nievas Rosillo, Mireia
author Barrio Uña, Juan Abel
author_facet Barrio Uña, Juan Abel
Contreras González, José Luis
Domínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco
Fonseca González, María Victoria
Fidalgo, David Friedrich Carreto
López Moya, Marcos
Nievas Rosillo, Mireia
author_role author
author2 Contreras González, José Luis
Domínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco
Fonseca González, María Victoria
Fidalgo, David Friedrich Carreto
López Moya, Marcos
Nievas Rosillo, Mireia
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidad Complutense de Madrid
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv 359.1
Gamma-ray astronomy
Cherenkov telescopes
Crab nebula
Electricidad
Electrónica (Física)
Física nuclear
2202.03 Electricidad
2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear
topic 359.1
Gamma-ray astronomy
Cherenkov telescopes
Crab nebula
Electricidad
Electrónica (Física)
Física nuclear
2202.03 Electricidad
2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear
description MAGIC, a system of two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, achieves its best performance under dark conditions, i.e. in absence of moonlight or twilight. Since operating the telescopes only during dark time would severely limit the duty cycle, observations are also performed when the Moon is present in the sky. Here we develop a dedicated Moon-adapted analysis to characterize the performance of MAGIC under moonlight. We evaluate energy threshold, angular resolution and sensitivity of MAGIC under different background light levels, based on Crab Nebula observations and tuned Monte Carlo simulations. This study includes observations taken under non-standard hardware configurations, such as reducing the camera photomultiplier tubes gain by a factor ∼1.7 (reduced HV settings) with respect to standard settings (nominal HV) or using UV-pass filters to strongly reduce the amount of moonlight reaching the cameras of the telescopes. The Crab Nebula spectrum is correctly reconstructed in all the studied illumination levels, that reach up to 30 times brighter than under dark conditions. The main effect of moonlight is an increase in the analysis energy threshold and in the systematic uncertainties on the flux normalization. The sensitivity degradation is constrained to be below 10%, within 15-30% and between 60 and 80% for nominal HV, reduced HV and UV-pass filter observations, respectively. No worsening of the angular resolution was found. Thanks to observations during moonlight, the maximal duty cycle of MAGIC can be increased from ∼18%, under dark nights only, to up to∼40% in total with only moderate performance degradation.
publishDate 2017
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2017
2017-09-01
2017
2017-09-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18353
url https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/18353
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier Science BV
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier Science BV
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Docta Complutense
instname:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
instname_str Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
reponame_str Docta Complutense
collection Docta Complutense
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,300724

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