What is LAGO?
The Latin American Giant Observatory (LAGO)
LAGO is a collaborative organization of Iberoamerican institutions operating the Latin American Giant Observatory, a network of astroparticle detectors operating in 10 LA countries for research in high-energy astrophysics and space weather phenomena.
A typical extensive air shower is impinging in the field. This cascade of secondary subatomic particles is produced during the interaction of energetic cosmic rays with the atmosphere. By taking advantage of the ecosystem of services provided by EGI for the EOSC-Synergy LAGO Thematic Service, we are able to regularly simulate this very complex phenomenon to calculate the radiation flux at ground level at any place in the World.
The LAGO detection network consists of single or small arrays of particle detectors at ground level, spanning different sites located at significantly different latitudes (currently from Mexico up to the Antarctic region) and different altitudes (from sea level up to more than 5000 meters over sea level), covering a huge range of geomagnetic rigidity cut-offs and atmospheric absorption/reaction levels. The measurements collected from these detectors are ulteriorly processed and analysed. Additionally, a huge amount of data is continuously generated using computational models to reproduce the expected signals of any detector operating in any weather and geomagnetic conditions anywhere around the World. The LAGO simulations and data analysis capabilities and capacities have mainly been expanded thanks to the creation of the LAGO Thematic Service within the EOSC-Synergy project.
Geographical distribution and altitudes of the LAGO detection network showing the currently operative water Cherenkov detectors (blue triangles), those that are being deployed (orange squares) and the new sites that are under consideration for the installation of new detectors (red circles).
The LAGO Project is operated by the LAGO Collaboration, a non-centralized and distributed collaborative network of 104 scientists from 31 institutions in 11 countries. Several universities have incorporated LAGO studies into their curricula, such as the identification of Space Weather Phenomena in the LAGO public data or the measurements of the muon lifetime. Their students, especially those belonging to physics, electronics and computing areas, also contribute to the development of LAGO technologies.
Currently, eleven countries participate in the LAGO Collaboration, covering a large area of influence at a global scale.