The Two Sites: North and South

The Auger Observatory has two sites, one in the southern hemisphere and one in the north. The southern site (near the city of Malargüe) in Mendoza province, Argentina has been under construction since 2000 and completion is expected in 2008. The northern site is planned for southeastern Colorado, roughly between the cities of Eads, Springfield, Las Animas and the Kansas border. Proposals for funding the northern site are in preparation.

Two sites are required to view the entire sky, which is needed to do complete searches for sources of ultra high-energy cosmic rays. Additionally, the northern sky contains a different distribution of relatively nearby matter than the south, so results from the north could be substantially different from those in the south.

The Auger collaboration began in the early 1990's and now consists of more than 350 scientists and engineers from 17 countries. See the main Auger project web site for more information.