I
am working as an LTE (limited term employee) doing testing and assembly
work on the DOMs (Digital Optical Modules) which are being embedded
into the ice at the South Pole.
The IceCube project is an
expansion of the previous AMANDA project and in fact AMANDA becomes
a sub-array of the expanded detector, IceCube. An animation of
how the detectors work as a neutrino telescope can be viewed here: Detector Animation
The neutrino detector is buried in the ice (see physical diagram
above) since neutrinos interact with water (ice) by producing blue
light (Cherenkov radiation). The DOMs detect this light both in intensity and by exact
time occurrence which lets computers plot the source of the light in
the Northern hemisphere.
The Amanda detector used analog circuitry, which required difficult
calibration, while the IceCube project collects light measurement data
in digital form, making the collection and analysis of the data more
reliable.
Even though the detector is located beneath 1.5 kilometers of ice it is carefully located in the "Dark Sector" which is 0.5 kilometer from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station where the scientific staff and equipment are housed. (check out their web cam or take a Virtual Tour of the South Pole)