Determination of the calorimetric energy in extensive air showers

The contribution of different components of an air shower to the total energy deposit in the atmosphere, for different angles and primary particles, was studied using the CORSIKA air shower simulation code. The amount of missing energy, parameterized in terms of the calorimetric energy, was calculated. The results show that this parameterization varies less than 1% with angle or observation level. The dependence with the primary mass is less than 5% and, with the high energy hadronic interaction model, less than 2%. The systematic error introduced by the use of just one parameterization of the missing energy correction function, for an equal mixture of proton and iron at 45degrees, was calculated to be below 3%. We estimate the statistical error due to shower-to-shower fluctuations to be about 1%. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.