Abstract
The Volcano Sierra Negra in Puebla, Mexico was selected to host HAWC (High Altitude Water Cherenkov), a unique obervatory of wide field of view (2π sr) capable of observing the sky continously at energies from 0.5 TeV to 100 TeV. HAWC is an array of 300 large water tanks (7.3 m diameter × 5 m depth) at an altitude of 4100 m. a. s. l. Each tank is instrumented with three upward-looking photomultipliers tubes. The full array will be capable of observing the most energetic gamma rays from the most violent events in the universe. HAWC will be 15 times more sensitive than its predecesor, Milagro. We present HAWC, the scientific case and capabilities.
