Directional reconstruction and anisotropy studies

The incident directions of cosmic ray particles at the highest energies are readily measured by modern detectors. Provided that there are sufficient data, the interpretation of such directions should give strong information on the origin of cosmic rays. However, the choice of statistical methods used in such an analysis can be of paramount importance in the reliability of the interpretation. This article summarizes the conclusions which may be drawn from the present data, and proposes methods needed to interpret statistically the large quantities of data which will become available in the near future. To cite this article: R.W. Clay et al., C. R. Physique 5 (2004).