Review of the Solar Array Telescopes

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development and results of solar tower Cherenkov telescopes, which detect astrophysical gamma rays in the sub-100 GeV range using large mirror arrays, highlighting their historical progress and key findings.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of solar tower Cherenkov experiments, detailing their design, analysis methods, and significant scientific results since 1992.

Findings

Achieved Crab sensitivities of over 6σ in one hour

Demonstrated effective analysis strategies for gamma-ray detection

Reviewed the evolution of solar tower Cherenkov experiments

Abstract

For several years the only experiments sensitive to astrophysical gamma rays with energies beyond the reach of EGRET but below that of the Cherenkov imaging telescopes have been the "solar tower" detectors. They use >2000 m2 mirror areas to sample the Cherenkov wavefront generated by <100 GeV gamma rays, obtaining Crab sensitivities of more than 6$\sigma$ in one ON-source hour. I will review the history of the solar tower Cherenkov experiments from 1992 to the present and their key design features. I will describe some successful analysis strategies, then summarize the principal results obtained.