Remote particle density calibration of a water Cherenkov detector using crossing-through muons

During the construction of the southern component of the Pierre Auger Observatory 1600 surface detector stations will be deployed, over an area of 3000 km(2), near the town of Malarge, Mendoza, Argentina. In order to keep the whole system running efficiently during its expected lifetime of 20 years it is very important to be able to monitor the detector behavior remotely. Furthermore, remote calibration of the detector stations will be mandatory. In this paper we propose, from experimental grounds, a simple method for remote calibration of the detected particle density using the normally present background cosmic radiation. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.