1. Astronomy & Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC) May 11, 2006 Vladimir Papitashvili Antarctic Sciences Section Office of Polar Programs National Science Foundation Cosmology and Astrophysics at South Pole Station

2. Science at South Pole 2005-2006: 37 projects Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology 13 projects Meteorology and Climatology 4 projects Geology and Geophysics 2 projects Dark Sector Quiet Sector Clean Air Sector Aeronomy and Space Physics 14 projects Glaciology 2 projects Science Support 2 projects

3. Radio Telescopes at South Pole 45 m 16 m 10-m South Pole Telescope BICEP QUaD

4. Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarimeter (BICEP) Collects 4.0 Gigabytes of data per day at South Pole since February 2006 Transmits 2.5 GB/day after compression Wide field refractor Receiver: - All-cold optic: 2 lenses + filters - 17° FOV, high throughput - Flat, telecentric focal plane Collaboration - Caltech (PI: Andrew Lange) - JPL - U. C. Berkeley - U. C. San Diego

5. Next Generation CMB Polarization Measurements with the QUEST Experiment on DASI (QUaD) Observes CMB Polarization signals at South Pole since February 2005 2.6-m Cassegrain telescope equipped with a next generation polarization-sensitive bolometer array Collaboration - Stanford University (PI: Sarah Church) - Caltech - U. Chicago BICEP and QUaD are aimed to detect signatures of gravity waves in CMB for the experimental test of Inflation Collects 2.5 Gigabytes of data per day Transmits 1.0 GB/day after compression

6. 10m South Pole Telescope (SPT) Scheduled for Nov 2006 – Jan 2007 deployment Low noise, precision telescope  20  m rms surface over 10m  1 arcsecond pointing  1 arcmin resolution at 2 mm  scan entire telescope  3 levels of shielding - 1 m radius on primary - inner moving shields - outer fixed shields Detector: 996 bolometer array SZE and CMB Anisotropy - up to 5 bands (start w/3) 90,150, 220, 270, 350 GHz - 4000 sq deg SZE survey - deep CMB anisotropy fields - deep CMB Polarization fields Collaboration - KICP, U. of Chicago (PI: John Carlstrom) - U. C. Berkeley - U.I.U.C. - Case-Western - SAO To test cosmological models studying CMB polarization and Sunyaev – Zel’dovich Effect, look for Dark Energy state In 2007, SPT plans to collect ~30 GB of data per day (after compression), but the current link can transmit only ~10 GB After the upgrade of South Pole satellite communication, the data volume will be increased to ~90 GB per day

7. IceCube High Energy Neutrino Observatory Design Parameters: Energy sensitivity 100 GeV – 10 PeV, pointing accuracy for high-energy muon tracks 0.7 o, time resolution of optical element <5 ns 1 km 3 of clear ice (1400-2400m below surface) instrumented minimum with 4200 Digital Optical Modules (DOM) in 70 strings; 60 DOMs at each string, on 125-m lattice spacing Data transmission, storage: 30 GBytes/day satellite; 150 GBytes/day written to tape at Pole (flown out by plane during austral summer) Status: 1 st string deployed in January 2005; 8 new strings deployed in December 2005 – January 2006 in first try at ‘production’ drilling and deployment season DOMs met or exceeded technical specifications regarding low noise and timing resolution; survival rate of DOMs deployed 99% Hot water drill developed to drill the 60 cm diameter, 2.5-km deep holes; met all technical milestones: drill rate & fuel usage requirements AMANDA Hot Water Drilling IceCube cost: $271.8M $242.1M from NSF; balance – from foreign projects Start: FY2002 Completion: FY2011

8. IceCube High Energy Neutrino Observatory (1)Schematic of IceCube showing track along with AMANDA (2)Deployment team as last DOM heads down-hole (Jan.2006) (3)Digital Optical Module, 13” diameter, with on-board electronics package (1)(2) (3)