The South Pole provides an extremely clean, stable environment; scientific infrastructure provided by NSF South Pole station; and and ideal Southern Hemisphere locations to complement dark matter searches in the Northern Hemisphere. Carlos Pobes/NSF
After testing and calibration, the detectors were carefully packed for the long journey to the South Pole. Reina Maruyama/NSF
At the Pole, the detectors were attached to the end of the IceCube strings and lowered into the array. The in-ice South Pole location provides stable environmental conditions for temperature, humidity, and pressure with very low backgrounds.
Reina Maruyama/NSF
Currently, 17 kg of NAI detectors are in operation in the South Pole ice, just below strings 79 and 7 of the IceCube array. DM-Ice is in the design and development phase for a full-scale experiment.
Reina Maruyama/NSF
Updates to the DM-Ice detector modules are underway. The current detector deployments will help assess the feasibility of deploying the detectors in the Antarctic ice, the environmental stability, and explore the capability of IceCube to act as a veto.
DM-Ice Collaboration
Each detector has two photomultiplier tubes, an encapsulated Nal crystal, quartz light guides, and light reflectors. Here you see the prototype DM-Ice detector before insertion into the metal pressure vessel under construction at the UW-Madison Physical Sciences Lab in 2010.
Reina Maruyama/NSF
