Cherenkov detector is a detector that uses the Cherenkov radiation principle. Cherenkov radiation is the light produced by charged particles that pass through an optically transparent medium faster than the speed of the light in the medium. Cherenkov detectors have been used extensively to detect subatomic particles that move at high speed. A Digital Optical Module (DOM) is a photomultiplier tube that is highly sensitive to detect the emission from Ice Cherenkov radiation and amplify the signal generated.
IceTop, the surface component of IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, studies cosmic ray air showers with an array of ice Cherenkov detectors called IceTop Tanks. An IceTop Tank was contained in an insulated shipping container loaded on the Oden icebreaker, in November 2009, with the collaboration of the University of Delaware, UW River Falls, and Uppsala University. Oden traversed the Atlantic Ocean from Helsingborg, Sweden goes to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and back in 2010. In the latitude survey, a detector carried through a wide range of geomagnetic cutoffs. At each location on the surface of the Earth, the geomagnetic cutoff is the minimum rigidity (momentum per unit charge) that a particle needs to reach the top of the atmosphere from interplanetary space.
The IceTop tank in the shipping container has four Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) frozen into the clear ice. Two neutron detectors were also placed on top of the tank. This figure has created by Flair, which is an advanced, user-friendly interface for FLUKA (FLUktuierende KAskade). Image Credit: Tangjai et al. 2021