Speaker
Description
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometer scale detector deployed
in the Antarctic ice. The surface array of IceCube, IceTop, serves as an
air-shower detector for primary cosmic rays in the PeV energy range and operates
as a veto and calibration detector for the astrophysical neutrino searches
for the IceCube in-ice instrumentation. Enhancing IceTop with a hybrid array
of scintillation detectors and radio antennas will lower the energy threshold for
air-shower measurements, provide more efficient veto capabilities, enable the
separation of the electromagnetic and muonic shower components, and significantly
improve the detector calibration by compensating for snow accumulation.
A prototype station consisting of 3 radio antennas and 8 scintillation detectors
was deployed at the South pole in 2020, and has yielded promising results
since. The production of the full surface array enhancement is ongoing. In
this contribution we will focus on the status of the production and calibration
methods for the scintillation panels. A brief introduction to the expected data
and proposed analysis from the enhancement is also discussed.
