Estimating Air Shower Fluctuations from the Monte Carlo Simulation Code CORSIKA

The study of cosmic ray extensive air showers (EAS) offers a unique way to estimate hadronic interaction cross-section at energies beyond the reach of accelerator experiments. Usually the hadron-air cross-section is estimated either by evaluating the absorption of the hadron initiated EAS flux penetrating the atmosphere or from the distribution of shower maximum. Employing a detailed Monte Carlo (MC) simulation code, the present work critically examined the analysis method usually adopted in obtaining cross- section through attenuation of EAS and estimated the degree of air shower fluctuations affecting the measurements of hadron-air cross sections.