AGIS

AGIS (Advanced Gamma Imaging System) is a future, large-scale atmospheric Cherenkov telescope array for high-energy gamma-ray astrophysics. The design of AGIS has not been finalized, but the array is visualized to consist of 50-100 Cherenkov telescopes covering an area of ~1 square-km. AGIS would be a major new facilty that would follow up on the success of current instruments, such as VERITAS and GLAST. The AGIS collaboration is currently involved in R&D work on novel telescope and camera designs and is working closely with the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) project, being developed in Europe.

ANITA

ANITA is a balloon-borne experiment designed to fly over Antarctica to study cosmic UHE neutrinos. Cosmic neutrinos are generated in the collisions between cosmic rays and the universe's microwave photon background at incredible energies that could never be reached on Earth. They therefore provide an exciting window into very high energy physical phenomena like the generation of micro-black holes and other exotic occurances that could demonstrate the unity of forces in the universe.

The Auger Project studies the highest energy particles in the cosmos-- particles with energies above 10²⁰ eV, the same energy in a well-hit base ball! The project is a collaboration of scientists from around the world. The UCLA group is playing an important part in the construction of the first Auger observatory in Argentina. Shown here is a schematic of the Auger detector technique using a ground array of water Cherenkov detectors and a fluorescence detector.

STACEE

STACEE (Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment) was a ground-based gamma-ray telescope using the atmospheric Cherenkov technique. STACEE used the solar mirror array of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (near Albuquerque, NM, USA) to make gamma-ray observations at energies between 50 and 500 GeV. Each of the solar mirrors is huge (6.1m x 6.1m) -- STACEE used 64 of them. STACEE operated between 2001 and 2007.

VERITAS

VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is a state-of-the-art ground-based gamma-ray observatory. VERITAS uses an array of four large atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to achive unprecedented sensitivity to sources of gamma rays in the energy range between 50 GeV and 50 TeV. Located on Mt. Hopkins in southern Arizona, USA, the array became fully operational in 2007 and is now carrying out a full observing program and is producing a wide range of astrophysical results.