KM3NeT - News Archive

Archive of news items

Measuring waves in the deep-sea

22 November 2017  – Geophysicists of  NIOZ Royal Netherlands institute for sea research and members of the KM3NeT Collaboration, have successfully anchored a unique 3D array with 550 high-resolution temperature sensors at the KM3NeT-Fr site, about 40 km offshore Toulon.  The device was anchored using the Ifremer/Genavir ship l’Atalante.

The temperature sensors are mounted on a structure of five parallel lines with a height of 100 m, 4 m apart. It is transported in a folded form and the arms of the structure and the folded lines with temperature sensors are unfolded overboard prior to deployment.

With  this device geophysicists in KM3NeT will study the motion of the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of about 2500 m. The deep sea is constantly in motion and waves develop supported by stable water layers. These internal waves in the deep sea are much slower than the waves at the surface, but are much higher: 10 m up to more than 100 m.  With the NIOZ device the turbulence and wave breaking in the deep sea can be measured with high precision.

  

 

 

 

 

 

See for an earlier deployment of the 3D sensor device the video below. First it shows the deployment of the top of the line with a.o. orange buoys. This is followed by a fascinating interplay of people pulling strings at the right time to unfold the structure. Once the structure is unfolded it is connected to the top  of the string before descending to the seabed.

 

Watch the KM3NeT Experience VR

20171102 – Watch the KM3NeT Experience

Watch this trailer using a google cardboard or any VR glasses. This is the trailer of the KM3NeT virtual reality Experience by Carlos Maximiliano Mollo researcher at the “Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare” (INFN). KM3NeT Experience is not only a virtual reality adventure but also an interactive electroacoustic music composition. Sounds and music were made by Alba Francesca Battista.

 

 

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Best poster at CNNP 2017

26 October 2017 – The KM3NeT Collaboration congratulates Giovanna Ferrara of INFN/LNS and the University of Catania, Italy with the award of the best poster presented at the Conference for Neutrino and Nuclear Physics, CNNP2017, in Catania, Italy.

With the poster ‘First results of the KM3NeT/ARCA detector‘, she presents the preliminary results of detailed studies comparing Monte Carlo predictions and the measurements collected in about a year of data taking with two ARCA detection units. In particular, she shows that the measured dependency of the flux of down going muon particles with the depth in the sea is in agreement with prediction. The results confirm that the ARCA detection units are well calibrated.

Giovanna presented the poster on behalf of the KM3NeT Collaboration. Co-author was Simone Biagi, INFN/LNS, Catania, Italy

The awarded poster.
The award ceremony. Giovanna Ferrara second from the right.

 

KM3NeT meets in Marseille

This week,  2-6 October 2017, researchers and engineers of  ANTARES and KM3NeT met in Marseille, France for their yearly Fall meeting. The Collaboration meeting was organised by the colleagues of the ANTARES/KM3NeT team of the CPPM research institute for particle and nuclear physics. A week full of science and technology reports and discussions including the  presentation of the first data of the recently deployed first detection unit of the ORCA detector offshore the coast of Toulon, France.

Colleagues of the IceCube Collaboration and from the GVD Lake Baikal Collaboration will join during the weekend for the yearly MANTS meeting of the GNN Global Neutrino Network.

Physics Nobel prize 2017

Congratulations to Rainer Weiss, Bary Barrish, Kip Thorne and the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration!

The KM3NeT Collaboration congratulates their pioneering work and the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration for this award. From a brilliant idea to an impressively sensitive instrument detecting the most violent events in the Universe!

KM3NeT/ORCA detector coming on-line

 

First detection unit of the KM3NeT/ORCA neutrino detector online

Last week, an extensive sea operation took place to deploy several elements of the KM3NeT/ORCA detector at the KM3NeT-Fr site, about 40 km offshore from Toulon. Amongst them, the first detection unit of ORCA comprising 18 optical modules, spaced at 9 m along a 200 m high vertical neutrino detection line. The deployment and connection of the detection unit was performed with the aid of a surface vessel and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) operated from a second boat.

The detection unit, wound around its spherical launching frame, was carefully lowered to the seafloor 2437 m below. Thanks to a state-of-the-art acoustic positioning system, the package was deployed within two metres of its designated position. Read more

KM3NeT Collaboration meets in Bari

Last week, 12 – 16 June 2017, researchers and engineers of  ANTARES and KM3NeT met in Bari, Italy for their yearly Spring meeting. The Collaboration meeting was organised by the colleagues of the local INFN team, coordinated by Marco Circella. Read more

KM3NeT and Industry

At the Hannover Messe, 24-28 April 2017, the Dutch KM3NeT team proudly presented the KM3NeT technology.  The KM3NeT exhibition stand was part of the Dutch Pavilion of this large industrial show and attracted the interest of the Dutch minister of research Sander Dekker (photo). The Hannover Messe offered a unique opportunity to share with a broad industrial audience the technical challenges and production opportunities of building the KM3NeT telescope in the deep seas of the Mediterranean.

(see also the coverage of Deutsche Welle)

Lake Baikal and Pylos

In April 2017, the global neutrino telescope community realising telescopes across the globe, made important progress at two locations very distant from each other.

On April 9th, after an intensive deployment campaign, the Baikal GVD neutrino telescope in Lake Baikal, Russia has been successfully extended with a second cluster of detection units. The telescope is now taking data with a total of 576 optical modules. The KM3NeT Collaboration congratulates its Russian colleagues for this important achievement.

 

Two days later, on April 11, in the Mediterranean Sea, a team of Greek KM3NeT physicists successfully recovered a prototype detector from a depth of 3000 m, 16 miles west of Pylos, Greece. The detector with 8 optical modules operated autonomously on batteries during four months. The collected data are currently being analysed. The KM3NeT Collaboration congratulates its Greek partners for this important step toward realisation of the future KM3NeT-Gr site.