Akeno Giant Air Shower Array
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The Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) is a very large surface array designed to study the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It covers an area of 100km² and consists of 111 surface detectors and 27 muon detectors.
The array is operated by the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo at the Akeno Observatory.
Array experiments such as this one are used to detect air shower particles.
The results from the AGASA were used to calculate the energy spectrum and anisotropy of cosmic rays. The results helped to confirm the existence of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (>5 x 1019eV), such as so-called Oh-My-God particle that was observed by the Fly's Eye atmospheric fluorescence detector experiment run by the University of Utah.
Pierre Auger Observatory plans to improve on the results from AGASA.
