Scientists from three continents confer in Prague on measuring cosmic radiation

An international meeting of scientists working on the Pierre Auger Observatory Project will take place in Prague from 16th to 18th April. The Pierre Auger Observatory Project ensures operation of cosmic radiation detectors located in the Argentinean Pampa on an area of 3,000 km². The construction of detectors should be completely finished by the end of this year; however, measurements are already carried out in the center's already functional parts. Such measurements lead to findings about the character and origin of high-energy cosmic radiation.

The meeting in Prague, organized by the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the CESNET Association, will focus on utilization of a grid for demanding simulations of cosmic ray showers in the atmosphere. The project has used a grid since 2006, when CESNET provided servers in a framework of the EGEE European grid and created a basic unit for work in a grid environment, so-called virtual organization. During computations, more than 200 computers from 8 computer centers were utilized at once. Tests proved the usefulness of a grid solution. Therefore, the capacity of computer devices reserved for virtual organization of the project will be increased several times this year. There are 25 participants from 9 countries on 3 continents in Prague discussing how to use new instruments and make everything accessible to more than 250 scientists participating in the project via the grid.

Detailed information on the Pierre Auger Observatory Project is available at http://www.auger.org/.

The CESNET association was established by colleges and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Currently, it is financed mainly from resources of the Research and Development Council and from resources of its members. The association executes research and development of information and communication technologies and builds and develops the CESNET2 national gigabit optical network intended for research and education. Thanks to its research activities and achieved results, the CESNET association represents the Czech Republic in the project of building the GÉANT2 pan-European network and in other international projects.