More information for General Public
includes:
Ice Cube explained
FAQ
Fun Facts
Neutrinos, A History
IceCube in Scale
How It Works
Life at the South Pole
Antarctica
Here is one answer from the FAQs that specifically talks about using the ice sheet of Antarctica:
Why build it at the South Pole?
In order to build the IceCube telescope, we had to find the clearest and purest ice we could find in as large a quantity as possible. In most ice, air bubbles and air pockets form which would distort our measurements. The south pole is basically an enormous glacier and consists almost entirely of ice. This ice is under extreme amounts of pressure as more and more snow falls and the water and ice are compressed tightly until it has been rendered into its purest form. IceCube detects the blue light made by the nuclear reaction initiated by a direct hit of a neutrino on an atom of ice. These hits are rare and it therefore requires a lot of atoms, actually a kilometer cube of ultra transparent ice to do the science. The instrumented ice has to be shielded from the natural radiation at the surface, in our case by a layer of 1.5 kilometer of ice covering IceCube. To build a detector of this complexity requires a scientific infrastructure. The South Pole station constructed on three kilometers of clear natural ice presents us with the opportunity to satisfy all requirements and make neutrino astronomy a reality.
More Information For Scientists and Researchers
includes:
IceCube Publications
First Year Performance Paper
Preliminary Design Document
Project Timeline
Yearly Statistics
Glossary of IceCube Terms
South Pole To Science
Meet A Scientist:
Professor Albrecht Karle
Research interest
The focus of Prof. Karle's research is to develop improved methods for the search of astrophysical point sources, establish and solidify the neutrino supernova collapse detection program in IceCube, and discover whether gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are the source of the highest energy cosmic rays. He is currently developing methods, along with others in the IceCube collaboration, of detecting acoustic and radio signals in the ice that are associated with high energy neutrino events.
Biography
Professor Karle first went to the South Pole in 1995 as a post-doctoral researcher to help deploy the first optical modules for AMANDA. He received a Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Munich, completing his doctoral research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Physics in Munich. As an assistant scientist and later as assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison he continued with the AMANDA project, going to the South Pole nearly every year. Prof. Karle played a key role in laying the groundwork for the IceCube Construction Project and now is the IceCube Associate Director for Science and Instrumentation. He is the Principal Investigator of the IceCube Analysis project at the UW. Currently he is the mentor for several Ph.D. graduate students and post-docs.
Contact details
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (At the South Pole until Feb. 1) (608) 890-0542
Others to contact including press inquiries
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Prof. Halzen is the PI for IceCube) 608-890-0541
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Prof. Gaisser is the current IceCube Spokesperson) 302-831-8113
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Dr. Malkus is the communications coordinator for the IceCube Project office) 608-263-0643