NASA Logo, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Astrophysics Science Division | Sciences and Exploration

This website is kept for archival purposes only and is no longer updated.

Skip to content

O rbiting W ide-angle L ight-collectors (OWL)

Detector Design

OWL home
(click on any OWL to reach home)
NASA logo
Introduction
Science
Mission Design
Detector Design
Papers and Presentations
Team Members
Other Links
 OWL drawing
  • Energy resolution - 14 % @ 1020 eV and improves with energy
  • Angular resolution - < 1 degree
  • Longitudinal profile - Locate shower max to within 50 g / cm2
    • Able to statistically identify protons, nuclei, and photons
    • Perform event-by-event identification of near horizontal and Earth-skimming neutrinos
  • Detector viewing stereo aperture - 4 x 106 km2 sr at the energy threshold of 1020 eV
  • > 5 year operation with ~ 10 % duty cycle

The focal plane requirements include:
  • UV filtering, sun shield
  • Better than microsecond sampling
  • Single photoelectron sensitivity
  • 105 or 106 gain
Among the focal plane options under consideration are:
  • Microchannel or microsphere plates
  • Commercial multi-anode photomultiplier tubes
OWL home This file was last modified May 4, 2004