Bonn 2020 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 84: Methods of astroparticle physics V

T 84.2: Talk

Thursday, April 2, 2020, 16:45–17:00, L-3.001

Thermal drills for rapid deployment of in-ice instrumentation used for ARIANNA — •Simon Zierke, Dirk Heinen, Lars Steffen Weinstock, and Christopher Wiebusch — RWTH Aachen University, III. Physikalisches Institut

In recent years, access to subglacial regions has become increasingly interesting for terrestrial and extraterrestrial research as well as for large-scale astroparticle physics experiments. Most of the current ice-drilling technologies require a large infrastructure or close supervision. In order to enable a simple and rapid deployment of in-ice instrumentation, within the EnEx-RANGE project thermal drills with a diameter of 8 cm and a length of about 1 m were developed, that reached melting velocities up to 8 m/h. One of these thermal drills was used for the installation of dipole radio antennas for ARIANNA at the Ross Ice Shelf at depths of up to 40 m. For this application, the equipment could be handled by one person, and the drilling could be carried out with minimal remote monitoring. As a next step this drilling technology will be improved within the TRIPLE-IceCraft project, to build a larger melting probe for transporting scientific payloads to a depth of several hundred meters. This melting probe will be demonstrated on the Ekström Ice Shelf near Neumayer-Station-III during the 2021/2022 Antarctic season. We will present the melting probe design, its use for ARIANNA and an outlook on the TRIPLE-IceCraft project.