Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory - Sub-detectors

Sub-detectors

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is made up of several sub-detectors in addition to the main in-ice array.

• AMANDA, the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array, was the first part built, and it served as a proof-of-concept for IceCube. AMANDA was turned off in April 2009.
• The IceTop array is a series of Cherenkov detectors on the surface of the glacier, two detectors approximately above each IceCube string. IceTop is used as a cosmic ray shower detector, for cosmic ray composition studies and coincident event tests: if a muon is observed going through IceTop, it cannot be from a neutrino interacting in the ice.
• The Deep Core Low-Energy Extension is a densely instrumented region of the IceCube array which extends the observable energies below 100 GeV. The Deep Core strings are deployed at the center (in the surface plane) of the larger array, deep in the clearest ice at the bottom of the array (between 1760 and 2450 m deep). There are no Deep Core DOMs between 1850 m and 2107 m depth, as the ice is not as clear in those layers.