23 September 2026 – The KM3NeT Collaboration is happy to report about a very successful sea campaign conducted at the KM3NeT ARCA site in the past two weeks. The campaign led to a significant step forward in the construction of the apparatus, including an enlargement of the submarine infrastructure and the detector and an upgrade of its acoustic positioning system.
The operation was carried out in two hitches, sailing from Malta, from September 4 to September 20. The Ievoli Amber ship, equipped with a work-class deep-sea Remotely Operated Vehicle, was used. This ship, which is operated by NGS – Next Geo Solutions, was at its first service for KM3NeT.
The operation started with the deployment of two submarine junction boxes and four interlink cables, two for each junction box, and their connection to the sea-floor network, in preparation for the further expansion of the apparatus. A dozen detection units were installed. For each of them this operation implied: deployment with a precise positioning on the sea bottom, connection to the junction box and unfurling, with detailed inspections and functional tests carried out before and after unfurling. All Digital Optical Modules were found operational after installation. An inspection of the submarine infrastructure and an upgrade of the acoustic positioning system with the installation of two additional emitters and precise measurements of their positions were also performed.
The weather was far from ideal for part of the time, requiring several rearrangements of the planning throughout the operation.
Overall this operation has set a new record of efficiency for KM3NeT, leading to a detector which now includes 62 detection units, connected to shore through a network comprising two long-distance electro-optical cables and 7 submarine junction boxes.
The whole Collaboration is grateful to the offshore and onshore teams for the marvelous way in which they managed this campaign, and to all teams involved in the construction of the apparatus for their dedication and careful work which led to such big success.
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