Typically, the image of a shower after some pre-processing is an elongated cluster. Its long axis is oriented towards the camera center if the shower axis is parallel to the telescope's optical axis, i.e. if the telescope axis is directed towards a point source. A principal component analysis is performed in the camera plane, which results in a correlation axis and defines an ellipse. If the depositions were distributed as a bivariate Gaussian, this would be an equidensity ellipse. The characteristic parameters of this ellipse (often called Hillas parameters) are among the image parameters that can be used for discrimination. The energy depositions are typically asymmetric along the major axis, and this asymmetry can also be used in discrimination. There are, in addition, further discriminating characteristics, like the extent of the cluster in the image plane, or the total sum of depositions.
The data set was generated by a Monte Carlo program, Corsika, described in: D. Heck et al., CORSIKA, A Monte Carlo code to simulate extensive air showers, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe FZKA 6019 (1998). [Web Link]
The program was run with parameters allowing to observe events with energies down to below 50 GeV.
testData