Atmospheric multiple scattering of fluorescence and Cherenkov light emitted by extensive air showers

J. Pekala, P. Homola, B. Wilczynska, H. Wilczynski

Published 2009-04-21Version 1

Atmospheric scattering of light emitted by an air shower not only attenuates direct fluorescence light from the shower, but also contributes to the observed shower light. So far only direct and singly-scattered Cherenkov photons have been taken into account in routine analyses of the observed optical image of air showers. In this paper a Monte Carlo method of evaluating the contribution of multiply scattered light to the optical air shower image is presented, as well as results of simulations and a parameterization of scattered light contribution to measured shower signal.