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In this article, I will review how observations performed with extensive air showers are being used to probe hadronic interactions at high energy. I will briefly overview the new studies exploring the connection between the dynamics of air…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has already collected more ultra high energy cosmic ray data than all the previous experiments. With an hybrid detection technique, it can provide coherent results on the flux, energy spectrum and arrival…
The Pierre Auger Observatory is a facility designed for the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The Observatory combines two different types of detectors: a surface array of 1600 water Cherenkov stations placed on a 1.5 km triangular…
We present a parameterized model of atmospheric particle showers initiated by cosmic rays. Few physics shower parameters are tuned in a comparison to the Conex generator. Resulting shower properties are studied, with a comment on the cases…
The observation of photons with energies above 10^18 eV would open a new window in cosmic-ray research, with possible impact on astrophysics, particle physics, cosmology and fundamental physics. Current and planned air shower experiments,…
Radio Cherenkov emission underlines detection of high energy particles via a signal growing like the particle-energy-squared. Cosmic ray-induced electromagnetic showers are a primary application. While many studies have treated the…
We report an investigation of the mass composition of cosmic rays with energies from 3 to 100 EeV (1 EeV=$10^{18}$ eV) using the distributions of the depth of shower maximum $X_\mathrm{max}$. The analysis relies on ${\sim}50,000$ events…
This review provides an introduction to the radio emission by particle cascades, an overview on the various experiments, and explains methods for the radio measurement of air-shower properties. Furthermore, potential applications of the…
The air fluorescence technique has long been used to detect extensive air showers and to reconstruct its geometry and energy. The fluorescence photon yield of an electron in air is of main importance in the reconstruction procedure.…
We describe a method to analyse inclined air showers produced by ultra high energy cosmic rays using an analytical description of the muon densities. We report the results obtained using data from inclined events…
Atmosphere-skimming showers are initiated by cosmic rays with incoming directions such that the full development of the cascade occurs inside the atmosphere without ever reaching the ground. This new class of showers has been observed in…
Data from multiple experiments suggest that the current interaction models used in Monte Carlo simulations do not correctly reproduce the hadronic interactions in air showers produced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR), in particular…
At the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array, the measurements of depths of maximum of air-shower profiles, $X_\mathrm{max}$, are performed using direct observations of the longitudinal development of showers with the help of the…
The muonic and electromagnetic components of air showers are sensitive to the mass of the primary cosmic particle. The sizes of the components can be measured with particle detectors on ground, and the electromagnetic component in addition…
A prototype system for detecting radio pulses associated with extensive cosmic ray air showers is described. Sensitivity is compared with that in previous experiments, and lessons are noted for future studies.
The collection of a statistically significant number detected of cosmic rays with energy above $10^{17}$ to $10^{18}$ eV requires widely-spaced particle detectors at the ground level to detect the extensive air showers induced in the…
Intrinsic differences in the processes involved in the development of electromagnetic and hadronic showers in the atmosphere have been evidenced by means of a careful analysis of the event image given by the ARGO-YBJ detector. The images…
The Pierre Auger Observatory detects ultra-high energy cosmic rays by implementing two complementary air-shower techniques. The combination of a large ground array and fluorescence detectors, known as the hybrid concept, means that a rich…
The role of Horizontal Showers induced by cosmic rays is discussed in detail. A new approach to the calculation of the muon component in horizontal air showers induced by protons, heavier nuclei or photons is presented which allows a simple…
Space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detectors observe fluorescence light from extensive air showers produced by these particles in the troposphere. Clouds can scatter and absorb this light and produce systematic errors in energy…