• Energy Research

This paper presents a study of the soil electrical resistivity of El Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, located in La Palma Island (Spain). This work is mainly motivated by the current plans of building an array of Cherenkov Telescopes (CTA) as well as other scientific installations, which demand low earth resistances for the operation of sensitive instruments, prevention of damage due to electrostatic discharges and protection against lightning strikes. Despite the top quality of the sky, the terrain is mostly filled of hard rocks and materials with high resistivity and hardness. No reliable data of resistivities could be found in available literature, therefore a dedicated resistivity survey onsite like the one presented here is essential to optimize the earth resistance of future installations. In this work, we present measurements done in six different locations of an area covering around 250 m × 275 m and centered on coordinates 28˚45'42.9"N, 17˚53'28.5"W. Low resistivity (Ωm) layers have been found at specific places and depths. The resistivity at the sites has been simulated with COMSOL Multiphysics software using two different models: a simple single layer model and a three-layer model. Agreement with measurements within 10% discrepancies was obtained in all cases. The main contributions of this work are the presentation of reliable values of soil resistivity at ORM, together with the accurate simulation of the soil profiles.

Abstract The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a next-generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. The Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1) is located at the CTA-North site, on the Canary Island of La Palma. LSTs are designed to provide optimal performance in the lowest part of the energy range covered by CTA, down to ≃20 GeV. LST-1 started performing astronomical observations in 2019 November, during its commissioning phase, and it has been taking data ever since. We present the first LST-1 observations of the Crab Nebula, the standard candle of very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, and use them, together with simulations, to assess the performance of the telescope. LST-1 has reached the expected performance during its commissioning period—only a minor adjustment of the preexisting simulations was needed to match the telescope’s behavior. The energy threshold at trigger level is around 20 GeV, rising to ≃30 GeV after data analysis. Performance parameters depend strongly on energy, and on the strength of the gamma-ray selection cuts in the analysis: angular resolution ranges from 0.°12–0.°40, and energy resolution from 15%–50%. Flux sensitivity is around 1.1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 250 GeV for a 50 hr observation (12% for 30 minutes). The spectral energy distribution (in the 0.03–30 TeV range) and the light curve obtained for the Crab Nebula agree with previous measurements, considering statistical and systematic uncertainties. A clear periodic signal is also detected from the pulsar at the center of the Nebula.