Two Approaches to Determining the Shower Size Threshold of a Small EAS Array

We compared two methods for determining the detector performance and the cosmic ray small-surface array aperture. The comparison was performed using the GELATICA network station at Telavi Iakob Gogebashvili State University (hereafter TEL) as an example. The first method is a standard analytical method. It is based on mean values of variables and averaged distributions. This analytical approach to data analysis was the focus of the research carried out within the GELATICA project. The project is a member of the international CREDO (Cosmic-Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory) Collaboration, whose main goal is the detection and global analysis of cosmic ray ensembles. In contrast to the traditional approach, which focuses on the detection of individual cosmic ray extensive air showers, CREDO aims to connect existing and yet-to-be built cosmic ray arrays into a worldwide network, thus creating a scientific tool for the global analysis of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The present work was the first to compare the determination of the parameters of the extensive air showers recorded by the TEL array with simulation results using the CORSIKA code. The interpretation of the results of the analytical method for the evaluation of detector registration thresholds is generally found to be inconclusive. In order to obtain definitive results, we propose additional measurements and a new method of array detector performance. We show that the energy spectrum obtained analytically is nearly in agreement with that obtained from simulations. Differences are apparent for the primary particle energy threshold. The difference in the overall counting rate for the TEL array is of the order of 4%.