Icecube Project Monthly Report

IceCube Project Monthly Report December 2006

Accomplishments Installed nine strings through mid January. The season baseline goal of 12 strings remains promising.

The transition from the temporary counting house to the IceCube Laboratory is complete. Work continues on commissioning the data systems. The ten IceTop surface stations planned for this season are in place. The freeze-in will continue over the next couple of months.

Started developing plans for 2007/2008. Production rates from this season, potential time savings possible with the independent firn drill, and an earlier start made possible by winterization of the drill equipment in the dark sector, increases confidence in string installation plans for future years.

50% Ic eCube Projec t Baseline (M$) 40% Initial In-Ice Strings & IceTop Tanks Installed Jan-2005 Initial Operational Capability M ar-2007 30% Project Completion & Closeout Sep-2011 Total Project Cost $274.7 20% $32.6 NSF Funding $242.1

10% Contingency as % of Remaining Costs 26.9% # Strings/Tanks 70/160

2 Cost and Schedule Performance – The project is 65.8% complete versus the plan of 66.3% complete, as measured using earned value techniques. The earned value measurement includes all tasks completed to date including design, development, procured materials, and the construction of the infrastructure that supports the seasonal installation plan, e.g., the hot water drill, cargo shipments, etc.

IceCube Neutrino Observatory Cost Schedule Status Report Reporting Period Ending: 11/30/2006 Note 1 Cumulative To Date (AY K$) At Completion (AY K$) Note 5 Complete (%) Budgeted Cost 2 Actual Cost Variance Contingency Latest Work Work of Work Budgeted Revised Actl OBS Structure L2 Scheduled Performed Performed Schedule Cost Assigned % ETC AY $s Estimate Variance Sched Perf Cost Project Support 19,776.0 19,689.5 19,359.7 -86.4 329.8 755.3 7.5% 30,260.4 29,396.3 864.0 65.4% 65.1% 64.0%

Implementation 25,721.4 25,713.9 26,282.5 -7.5 -568.6 7,101.0 40.6% 39,300.5 43,756.5 -4,456.0 65.4% 65.4% 66.9%

Instrumentation 47,704.9 47,488.1 47,158.0 -216.8 330.1 3,718.8 17.7% 68,418.5 68,207.6 211.0 69.7% 69.4% 68.9%

Data Acquisition 26,437.9 26,370.9 26,318.9 -67.0 52.0 716.1 9.2% 34,129.6 34,129.6 0.0 77.5% 77.3% 77.1%

Data Systems 17,084.3 16,396.0 17,969.5 -688.2 -1,573.5 1,700.8 22.9% 25,381.4 25,381.4 0.0 67.3% 64.6% 70.8%

Detector Comm. & 13,086.4 13,026.7 13,041.8 -59.7 -15.1 986.8 14.3% 19,932.4 19,932.4 0.0 65.7% 65.4% 65.4% Verification

Subtotal 149,810.9 148,685.2 150,130.4 -1,125.7 -1,445.2 14,978.8 21.2% 217,422.8 220,803.8 -3,381.0 68.9% 68.4% 69.1%

RPSC SUPPORT 16,284.1 16,129.9 15,878.2 -154.2 251.7 8,043.5 36.2% 32,817.5 38,104.0 -5,286.5 49.6% 49.2% 48.4%

NSF 644.9 644.9 644.9 0.0 0.0 160.0 25.9% 1,263.0 1,263.0 0.0 51.1% 51.1% 51.1%

Total 166,740.0 165,460.0 166,653.5 -1,279.9 -1,193.5 23,182.3 24.8% 251,503.3 260,170.7 -8,667.5 66.3% 65.8% 66.3%

CONTINGENCY Notes 3,4 23,182.3 14,514.8 8,667.5

IceCube Total Note 2 166,740.0 165,460.0 166,653.5 -1,279.9 -1,193.5 23,182.3 24.8% 274,685.5 274,685.5 0.0 66.3% 65.8% 66.3%

Notes: 1 Incorporates approved baseline changes. 2 Total Budget at Completion includes non-US contributions 2,915 K over the amount in the post Hartill III baseline o$f:29,698 K 3 Budgeted contingency is: 26.9% of the Budgeted cost of work remaining. 4 Budgeted contingency is: 24.8% of the Estimated Cost to Complete (ETC) 5 The latest revised estimate equals either the budgeted cost of work remaining divided by the historical cost performance index, or a currently proposed baseline revision.

20% Original Baseline

0% Feb-04 May-04 Aug-04 Nov-04 Feb-05 May-05 Aug-05 Nov-05 Feb-06 May-06 Aug-06 Nov-06

3 Change Log – IceCube Total Project Budget Baseline ($K)

Estimate Budgeted Contingency Allocated Date Total Allocated Contingency To Cost of % of No. Description Budget Approved Baseline Budget Budget Complete Work Remaining Change (ETC) Remaining Work

NA Status as of 274,686 251,457 23,229 97,609 88,108 26.4% Oct 2006 CR76 Accounting 12/22/06 274,686 251,542 85 23,144 93,517 86,043 26.9% Reconciliation CR74 RPSC 11/08S/06 274,686 251,503 -39 23,182 93,517 86,043 26.9% Rebaseline Through 2007

High Level Risk Assessment & Potential Future Contingency Adjustments Potential Item Contingency Notes Adjustments Spares, additional drillers, potential This potential change will be addressed as increased retro and maintenance costs in $4,500K part of the revised plan for construction drilling out years completion – April 2007. Cost to increase to 80-strings, assuming Restore 80-string configuration $2,500K most probable production yields. This potential change will be addressed as Scope and higher unit pricing will increase $5,250K part of the revised plan for construction the RPSC out-year budget baseline completion – April 2007. One additional drilling season beyond Cost of an additional deployment season $8,000K 2010/2011 Potential draw on contingency due to a slow Lack of NSF support for maintenance and $4,000K ramp up in operations support operations activities.

Drill Operation and String Installation – The IceCube team at the South Pole is now drilling the tenth hole for the season. The baseline goal of twelve strings remains a realistic goal for the current season. Low level commissioning tests of the nine strings installed this season are underway.

Debris from the old station was encountered during firn drilling for hole locations 74 and 73. In both cases the firn drill was brought back up and examined for damage before a decision was made to continue drilling. No further debris was encountered and drilling continued without difficulty.

IceCube Laboratory - The transition from the temporary counting house to the IceCube Laboratory (ICL) is complete and commissioning of the laboratory will be complete in a few days. Twenty-six surface cables were pulled through one of the cable towers and patched into the new computing. Most of the computer systems have been powered on and final tests and updates completed before general release early next week. The patch cables are being installed as surface cables become available in the ICL. The antenna enclosure will be installed after the conduit run is inside the ICL and will replace the cable runs that were removed for the internal fire rated walls that were added around the stairwell. The antennas are scheduled to be installed in the coming week.

4 Digital Optical Module and Cable Production Status and Plans - There are no major issues with instrumentation production. The plans provide instrumentation well in advance of the installation dates and support the use of the least expensive shipping methods. The actual status of DOM integration is provided in the following chart.

DOMs ready for DFL @ PSL - cumulative plan 1800 DOMs ready for DFL @ DESY - cumulative plan

DOMs ready for DFL @ Swed - cumulative plan 1600 DOMs ready for DFL - cumulative plan all sites

DOMs ready for DFL - cumulative actual all sites 1400

South Pole DOM Testing and Cable Delivery – DOM testing at the South Pole is proceeding well in advance of deployment. The final testing cycle is now underway and DOMs are available for thirteen strings. Surface-to-DOM cables are at the pole for the twelve strings planned for this year. A thirteenth cable will be flown in from McMurdo if needed.

IceTop Installation and Commissioning – The ten IceTop stations planned for this season are now in place and the controlled freeze of the tank water is underway.

Detector Commissioning and Verification – The framework for automatic verification of data, to be run online at Pole on the unfiltered data, was established and finalized as a result of a meeting held between people in the verification and Processing/Filtering groups. A graduate student from Penn Sate continues to be trained in the use of this system in preparation for his trip to Pole in January.

New verification plots were incorporated into the monitoring pages and personnel from Bartol is performing the translation of waveform monitoring/verification plots used by IceTop into a format useful for the InIce array.

The last set of verification data for 2006 was taken. The filtering of the 2005 TWR data was completed. A plan for the hole ice calibration measurement on string 48, scheduled to be made in January, was completed.

5 A correction to the GPS firmware in AMANDA was made. The modified triggering module for AMANDA (the DMADD) was modified to work under TWR control as part of the integration of AMANDA into IceCube. Some problems were found, but solving those problems was severely hampered by inadequate staffing at Pole, and this effort is still ongoing.

Data Acquisition System Hardware - The primary deliverables for the DAQ hardware group are DOM Main Board Assemblies, a GPS/Master Clock Distribution system and DOM Hub Industrial Computers. There are no issues to report and production is on track.

Data Acquisition System Software - As reported last month, an intensive effort is being applied to the DAQ software to advance the new more streamlined approach that was adopted in November. This effort can be divided into the following major categories:

 Replacing the distributed framework system of the old DAQ with a lightweight system that is simpler to configure and use and allows mixing the Java-based DAQ software components with non-Java scripts and control glue. Overall this makes the system less complex and more extensible. The design and implementation of this new framework was completed and we are now using it on the northern hemisphere testing systems to control network-distributed DAQ software entities. This includes completing modifications of the existing DAQ trigger and event-construction components to allow them to interact with the new framework code.

 Replacing the database-centric configuration system with a simpler system that uses the file system to organize files that hold run configuration settings. The new system is much easier to use and more flexible than the older system.

 Using Subversion as a code repository system to archive software codes and associated resource files. The server is shared with other IceCube software systems thus reducing the necessity of supporting a separate code repository solely for DAQ. In addition, we selected the maven (http://maven.apache.org) build system in favor of an older custom-designed system to reduce the maintenance costs of supporting this code. Both Subversion and maven are now used regularly to archive and produce builds and releases of the DAQ software.

 Merging several components in the old DAQ: (1) the data handlers for supernova and DOM monitoring streams were combined into a single software component; (2) the string processor software component was merged with the readout computer to form a component called the StringHub. The latter merger resulted in the elimination of 10 2U servers at South Pole, saving space and approximately 3 kW in power dissipation. The new components are now functional and undergoing testing.

 Developing a DOM simulation system that allows testing a large array of DOMs (up to the full 70-string detector) in the northern hemisphere testing system. This system is currently rudimentary but does possess sufficient fidelity to test the data movement capabilities of the

6 DAQ. A detailed simulation that takes into account the physics of the events likely to be recorded in the real detector is still lacking and will require significantly more work.

The revised DAQ is on track for implementation on the South Pole System in February.

Data Systems - Overall progress on Data Systems remains good with no major delays or cost variances.

Occupancy of the IceCube Laboratory has been granted and equipment (~18 racks and associated computer equipment) for the South Pole System (SPS) installed. Support for the AMANDA TWR readout and data handling systems have been transitioned to the IceCube systems. Computer systems in the Temporary Counting House have been decommissioned. Installation and upgrades of computing equipment for the Northern Hemisphere Tier 1 Data Center and upgraded storage capacity for the Tier 0 Data Warehouse at UW continues on schedule.

Continued enhancements to the online and offline database tools for IceTray were delivered in preparation for deployment to the South Pole this year. Development and testing of the Joint- Event-Builder (JEB), which will join the IceCube DAQ and Amanda TWR data streams into a single data stream for filtering, continued. This major milestone in the integration of the AMANDA detector into IceCube will allow us to turn off several legacy systems on AMANDA to save power at the South Pole and to make optimal use of the available satellite bandwidth. Interfaces and system integration planning for online filter/JEB to work with the new DAQ are being deployed this season.

Simulation production with version 1.9.6 began this month, which includes simultaneous simulation of IceCube DOMs and AMANDA TWR readouts. Several sites are now participating in the distributed production of simulation events. Data from production is available to the collaboration for online filter development and testing.

Progress in experiment control continues with improvements in configuration infrastructure and detector monitoring web pages. Several developers’ releases of the experiment control infrastructure have been made, allowing subsystems to develop interfaces to the online experiment control system.

Quality Assurance and Safety – No significant issues to report.

The monthly reports are posted at IceCube Monthly Reports. Construction Reports are posted at IceCube 2006-2007 Weekly Construction Reports.

Meetings and Events Forecast for End of Drilling for the 2006/2007 Season January 30, 2007 Project Advisory Panel/Science Advisory Committee Meeting March 1-2, 2007 IceCube Collaboration Meeting, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin April 24-28, 2007 NSF Annual Review of the IceCube Project (tentative) May 2007

7 Drillers assembling the weight stack for the hot water drill.

Winch being positioned for string 78.