The Experimental group of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos completed its mission to successfully deploy the TAROGE-M 2023 station, consisting of eight receiver antennas, on Mt. Melbourne, Antarctica in February 2023.
TAROGE-M is an antenna array installed on high mountains in Antarctica, and aims to detect impulsive radio signals generated by cosmic rays and earth-skimming neutrinos. Specifically, it seeks to solve the mystery of the ultra-high energy upward-moving air-showers known as the ANITA anomalous events.
The project started with a prototype in 2019, and TAROGE-M 2020, which consists of 6 antennas, was installed in 2020 and collected data for about a month. The results were recently published in JCAP and the detection capability and feasibility were demonstrated well.
In this season, the first deployment after the pandemic, many tasks were performed, such as increasing the number of antennas from 6 to 8, upgrading the trigger and power system, and installing the ground calibration-pulser station.
The deployment team, consisting of Chung-Yun Kuo, professor Jiwoo Nam, boarded the icebreaker ARAON on January 4th at Lyttleton Port, New Zealand, and arrived at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica, on January 19th after sailing for two weeks. The team visited Mt. Melbourne several times by helicopter, and installation of the station was completed in February 7th. After that, post-installation work such as calibration was successfully performed. After that, post-installation tasks such as calibration were successfully performed. The team members boarded the ARAON on 11 March and are now returning to New Zealand, arriving at the Port of Lyttleton at the end of March.
The TAROGE system has been smoothly carrying out data taking from March 5th to the present, and has already exceeded the record of operation for one month in 2020. Thanks to improved trigger performance and extended operation time, TAROGE-M 2030 is expected to achieve more than twice the sensitivity of its predecessor.
Installation of antennas of TAROGE-M
Construction of a tower unit
Installation of data acquisition box
TAROGE-M 2023 station after the deployment completed
Photo during the installation of the ground calibration-pulser system at Baker Rocks
drone-borne calibration-pulser flight
Frozen antenna in a day of extreme weather
An igloo ‘Taiwan Station’ built at Mt. Melbourne while waiting Helicopter.
