Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be a ground-based high energy gamma radiation detector. This radiation is detected by the measurement of particle showers in the atmosphere. The questions of the origin of the cosmic radiation, the functional principle of cosmic particle accelerators in the area of black holes or the nature of the dark matter are in the scientific goals of CTA. At the moment the instrument is in the planning phase and first results will probably be in 2014. The site of the

more »

... strument has an immediate influence on the sensitivity e.g. due to the weather, the height above sea level. Several possible sites for CTA are being considered at the moment including Namibia, Argentina, Canary islands and Mexico. The geomagnetic field affects the development of showers and distorts the images of the air shower in the telescope. The aim of this work is to quantify the influence of the strength and the direction of the geomagnetic field at the different possible locations on the sensitivity of CTA using Monte Carlo simulations of particle showers. Firstly, we simulated the lateral distribution at the twelve sites. The geomagnetic field of the sites was obtained from the National Geographic Data Center (NGDC). To study the influence of the Earth's magnetic field, we held the altitude of the sites constant at 2000 m. Hence, we could choose two sites per hemisphere which could be potential candidates for the Cherenkov Telescope Array: Beaufort West (South Africa), El Leoncito (Argentina), La Palma (Canary Islands) and San Pedro Martir (Mexico). To compare the results with a site which is already known, we chose the observatory H.E.S.S. in Namibia. After the study of the energy thresholds and the effective areas we decided in favour of two sites, one in the southern and one in the northern hemisphere. Considering the influence of the geomagnetic field on the predictions, the southern observatory should be in Beaufort West in South Africa. The northern array of CTA would be on the Canary Island La Palma. The disadvantages of the candidate sites with a large influence of the geomagnetic field are compensated with a higher altitude of the locations. After the investigation of the Cherenkov light characteristics, the energy spectra and the corresponding effective areas, we chose one place for the southern array and one place for the northern array of CTA: