Welcome, ORCA-10!
22 November 2021 – Four new detection units have been added to ORCA with a 5-day intense and successful sea operation.
KM3NeT - ORCA sea campaigns
Liveblogs during sea campaigns for ORCA.
Sea campaign completed: 10 detection units in operation at ORCA
22 November 2021 – Excellent progress today, with the work finalized on the two detection units lately deployed: after a confirmation from the tests that both were ok, the unfurling was started of the two units. The launcher vehicles were safely recovered from the Castor; the ROV inspected both units after unfurling, confirming that both are in nominal configuration. A new functionality test was then performed from the shore station to ensure that both detection units work nominally.
News from the ORCA campaign – hard work ongoing, bad weather approaching
21 November 2021 – The weather forecast does not look promising for next days. The main effort today was spent on some tuning of the equipment and preparation to next steps.
Two new detection units added to ORCA… and counting
20 November 2021 – It was night and day again. The work continues around the clock when you are at sea. The second detection unit was also deployed, connected and tested last night. After that, unfurling was performed for the two detection units. A final test was then made from the shore to check that the two units are ok even after unfurling, et… voilà: ORCA is enlarged to 8 detection units.
First day of activity at the ORCA site
19 November 2021 – The first day of activity has gone at the ORCA site. Most efforts today were aimed at getting everything well prepared for the action. The first detection unit was then deployed to the sea bottom, precisely placed on the sea floor and connected to the submarine infrastructure. The tests performed from shore confirm that the dection unit is nicely working, and it now awaits to be “unfurled” to its work configuration. Deployment of the second detection unit has been started in the evening.
New sea installation started for ORCA! Follow it from our blog
18 November 2021 – Right in the middle of the joint ANTARES and KM3NeT Collaboration meeting, which is taking place – once again – online, a new sea campaign has been started for ORCA. Isn’t it the right way to show that a virus can’t stop science?
New sea campaign started for ORCA
18 November 2021 – What a day! After a stand-by of 24 hours, due to uncertain weather conditions, the Castor and the Janus left the French coast headed to the KM3NeT/ORCA site. Ahead is one week of hard work to enlarge the deep-sea neutrino telescope.
Welcome to the liveblog about the ORCA sea operation of November 2021
November 17, 2021 – KM3NeT is getting ready for a new sea operation at the ORCA site near the French coast of Toulon.
Seven new detection units for ORCA are already onboard the Castor ship which will be used for the deployment.
The ship is waiting for an improvement of the weather conditions to sail from the port of La Seyne Sur Mer.
We will report on this operation with posts in the social media and in the ORCA-blog.
New paper: Deep-sea deployment of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope detection units by self-unrolling
20 November 2020 – The KM3NeT Collaboration has published a new paper, in which we describe in detail the innovative deployment method for KM3NeT detection units.
Successful sea operation in times of corona
17 – 24 October 2020 – After COVID tests and a few days of quarentine, a KM3NeT team of CPPM boarded the cable layer Raymond Croze late last night in the harbour of La Seyne sur Mer in the South of France. Read more
