Deep Sea Explorers
Deep Sea Explorers will invite citizens to optimize the KM3NeT neutrino telescope against sources of environmental noise which have never been systematically studied, while engaging in the exciting world of neutrino astronomy.
Deep underwater neutrino telescopes as KM3Net measure neutrino events as well as environmental events that constitute “noise” for the neutrino searches. These environmental events range from biological bioluminescene, to acoustic signals from mammals and or earthquakes. The Deep-Sea hunters citizen science demonstrator will exploit the “eyes” and the “ears” of the KM3NeT detector in order to support KM3NeTs scientists to increase their efficiency in their neutrino detection algorithms, while gaining a greater insight of the unexplored deep marine environment. In the framework of REINFORCE, time sequences of the optical counting rates on the KM3NeT “eyes”, its optical modules containing photomultiplier tubes able to measure visible light at a single photoelectron level, will be made available to the general public in order to monitor ambient bioluminescence. Citizens will be invited to classify in a systematic way the various types of waveforms observed.
This study can be extended to monitor the seasonal variations of the amount of bioluminescence as well as to catalogue the different contributing species. Furthermore, the “ears” of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope, acoustics hydrophones located on the main detection units, will provide citizens with time sequences of the acoustical signals of the KM3NeT and ask them to classify in a systematic way the various types of waveforms observed. Take a look at the Zooniverse page!
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