Overview
- Completed between December 2025 and January 2026 after three drilling seasons, the upgrade brings the South Pole array to 92 strings.
- More than 650 new photodetectors and calibration devices were installed, including nine wavelength-shifting optical modules that convert UV Cherenkov light to visible photons for detection.
- Higher instrument density immediately improves detection of lower-energy events and sharpens measurements of neutrino properties such as oscillations, with benefits for supernova monitoring.
- New multi-PMT modules and added calibration sensors provide 360-degree light collection and better knowledge of ice optics, refining particle energy and direction reconstructions.
- The international IceCube Collaboration—over 450 scientists from 58 institutions in 14 countries—completed the work with primary funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and significant German support.