State of the Ice Model in IceCube observatory

IceCube is a neutrino observatory located at the South Pole that uses Antarctic ice as a medium for detection of Cherenkov photons. As such, analysis of the data relies on our understanding of the properties of ice within and around the instrumented volume. Over the years we have made significant progress in understanding the glacial ice and now have a comprehensive model that covers many of the relevant aspects of the photon propagation in it. In this report we give a historical overview of the ice description within the IceCube detector, list some of the remaining issues, and assess how much more improvement is still needed. As the IceCube Upgrade is expected to be installed in less than a year, with several new types of calibration devices aiming to further our understanding of ice, this is the perfect time to review the current state of the ice model.

Authors

Publication Details

Published
2025-09-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.1013
Primary Topic
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

State of the Ice Model in IceCube observatory

L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, Sofia Athanasiadou, Kiara Carloni et al.
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
article

State of the Ice Model in IceCube observatory

L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, Sofia Athanasiadou, Kiara Carloni, Rasmus Orsoe, Sarah Mechbal, Rishi Babu, Philip Weigel, Arun Vaidyanathan, Thijs van Eeden, Diego Alberto Coloma Borja, James DeLaunay, G. M. Spiczak, Christy Love, M. Lamoureux, Thien Nhan Chau, Spencer Griswold, Woosik Kang, I. Taboada, Daniel Salazar-Gallegos, S. R. Klein, Michael Campana, Frank Schröder, Jonathan Mauro, Felix Schlüter, C. H. Wiebusch, P. Desiati, Lukas Hennig, Krishnamoorthi Jayakumar, Abdul Rehman, C. De Clercq, John Evans, K. D. de Vries, Alexander Sandrock, Sebastian Schindler, Yuriy Popovych, Axel Pontén, Federico Bontempo, Hershal Pandya, Ek Narayan Paudel, A. Parenti, G. de Wasseige, Veronika Palušová, A. Haungs, Erik Ganster, Leonora Kardum, Shefali Shefali, J. Vandenbroucke, Colton Hill, Laurent Arnaud, Frederik Hermann Lauber, J. C. Díaz–Vélez, Kareem Ramadan Farrag, Richard Naab, Ramesh Koirala, Julian Saffer, Christoph Raab, J. V. Santen, Félix Carbonell, Matheus Hostert, Miaochen Jin, Karriem Upshaw, Diyaselis Delgado, G. C. Hill, Ryan T. Burley, Felix Henningsen, Markus Dittmer, J. M. Conrad, P. Eller, S. Yoshida, Julia Book, Joelle Savelberg, S. Sarkar, A. R. Fazely, Finn Mayhew, Kaustav Dutta, Bennett Brinson, F. Halzen, Martin Wolf, S. Griffin, E. Bernardini, Alicia Mand, J. V. Mead, Alan Coleman, Leon Hamacher, Matthias Thiesmeyer, Oliver Janik, John Rack-Helleis, Thomas Ehrhardt, Agnieszka Leszczyńska, Maximilian Meier, Martina Karl, C. Pérez de los Heros, Cristina Lagunas Gualda, Uwe Naumann, Shiqi Yu, Emma Kun, Sreetama Goswami, Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, T. Glüsenkamp, C. Finley, Anna Eimer, Jan Soedingrekso, C. Argüelles, Aishwarya Vijai, Attila Hidvégi, Kathrine Mørch Groth, Christian Spannfellner, Fahim Varsi, Lucas Bloom, Jan Weldert, Barbara Skrzypek, X. Bai, Gaurav Garg, Yuya Makino, M. Kowalski, E. Blaufuss, Seowon Choi, Shannon Gray, V. A. Parrish, Claudio Kopper, D. Chirkin, Vedant Basu, Gerhard Krieger, Yarno Merckx, Christian Gläser, Philipp Behrens, O. Botner, Alexander Harnisch, Donghwa Kang, Kirsten Tollefson, S. Ter–Antonyan, J. Böttcher, Erin O’Sullivan, D. Ryckbosch, S. Sclafani, Maria Liubarska, Nora Valtonen-Mattila, Thomas Stuttard, Hannah Erpenbeck, Will Thompson, Sarah Mancina, Lukas Merten, T. Stezelberger, G. W. Sullivan, T. Karg, R. W. Moore, Jakob Beise, Christian Haack, Akanksha Katil, Simeon Bash, A. Ishihara, J. G. González, Alex Wen, L. Halve, Martin Ha Minh, Daniel Durnford, Zoë Rechav, Francesco Lucarelli, Jeffrey Lazar, A. Obertacke Pollmann, J. S. Gallagher, William Luszczak, Aske Rosted, Rachel Procter-Murphy, Ava Ghadimi, Jannis Necker, M. Ackermann, W. Iwakiri, Peter John Cusack Coleman, M. J. Larson, Perri Zilberman, Janeth Valverde, Paras Koundal, K. Meagher, Emre Burak Yildizci, Zheyang Chen, Andreas Noell, Chang Dong Rho, R. Maruyama, Caterina Boscolo Meneguolo, Minjin Jeong, Ella Roberts, Russell J. Hewett, Vivian O'Dell, Jose Carpio, Dan Hooper, Joanna Kiryluk, Tianlu Yuan, Carolin Klein, Angela Zegarelli, S. BenZvi, A. Franckowiak, Lea Schlickmann, Shuyang Deng, K. Noda, Yosuke Ashida, Waleed Esmail, Joshua Villarreal, K. Hultqvist, N. Whitehorn, C. Rott, Larissa Paul, Ke Fang, M. A. DuVernois, Thomas Huber, N. Kurahashi, Anil Kumar, Gerrit Wrede, Hans Niederhausen, W. Rhode, Alejandra Granados, K. Andeen, D. B. Fox, Tomas Kontrimas, Karlijn Kruiswijk, Bruno Benkel, Anatoli Fedynitch, Ali Kheirandish, P. A. Evenson, Tetiana Kozynets, K. Helbing, Jesse Osborn, Megha Venugopal, Dennis Soldin, M. Kauer, Jean-Marco Alameddine, Sebastian BOSER, David Joseph Guevel, A. Kappes, Frank McNally, Mark Weyrauch, Ivan Martínez-Soler, T. Montaruli, Else Magnus, Elena Manao, Yitong Liu, Alexander Novikov, N. Kamp, Lars Philipp Heuermann, Chiara Bellenghi, Patrick Hatch, Philipp Fürst, J. J. Beatty, M. García, Benedikt Riedel, Sharmistha Chattopadhyay, Allan Hallgren, M. Plum, Maria Prado Rodriguez, Kayla Leonard DeHolton, Emmett Krupczak, Pascal Gutjahr, Rasha Abbasi, Pranav Sampathkumar, S. Seunarine, Sam Hori, Marc Jacquart, Tista Mukherjee, M. Stamatikos, Adam Rifaie, Doğa Veske, Lincoln Draper, Philipp Soldin, Giacomo Sommani, Tanvi Krishnan, Leonhard Eidenschink, Neha Navnitkumar Lad, Szabolcs Márka, Josh Peterson, Xinyue Kang, Delaney Butterfield, Yasutsugu Morii, Alina Kochocki, Martin Rongen, Michael Handt, Mohammad Ful Hossain Seikh, Anuj Kumar Upadhyay, N. Rad, Merlin Schaufel, Nils Heyer, Marjon Moulai, M. Ahlers, Leander Fischer, Berit Schlüter, Kwok Lung Fan, D. J. Koskinen, Jonas Häußler, Karolin Hymon, Brandon Pries, C. Ha, Yuhua Yao, Jonas Hellrung, Stef Verpoest, Matthias Vereecken, Alexandra Trettin, J. L. Kelley, Aswathi Balagopal V., Simeon Reusch, Summer Blot, Maxwell Nakos, H. Kolanoski, Ludwig Neste, Nick Schmeisser, Lucas Witthaus, Anke Mosbrugger, Eliot Genton, Teresa Pernice, Patrick Schaile, Martin Langgård Ravn, Leonardo Ricca, Shuo Zhang, Andrew Wang, Li Ruohan, Yang Lyu, Nobuhiro Shimizu, Yukiho Kobayashi, Alfonso Garcia, Zelong Zhang, Wenjie Hou, Samyak Jain, Justin Mitchell, J. Becker Tjus, Satoshi Fukami, Christoph Günther, Chris Weaver, Jessie Thwaites, Serap Tilav, Ralph Engel, Najia Moureen Binte Amin, Andreas Weindl, Kendall Mahn, Robert Snihur, Dawn Williams, Arifa Khatee Zathul, Kotoyo Hoshina, Robert Young, Sebastian Vergara Carrasco, Stephanie Hickford, Kara Hoffman, A. Søgaard, Sally Robertson, D. Seckel, Albrecht Karle, Juliana Stachurska, G. T. Przybylski, Darren Grant, Ryan Bay, Jenni Adams, Alex Olivas, Juan Pablo Yáñez, T. DeYoung, Delia Tosi, Katherine Rawlins, Torsten Schmidt, Timo Stürwald, Tim Ruhe, M. U. Nisa, Todor Stanev, Andrii Terliuk, Alba Domi, Brian Clark, H. Schieler, Ioana Codrina Mariş, Lu Lü, Christian Spiering, G. B. Yu, D. Berley, Lilly Pyras, Dominik Elsässer, Nahee Park, Pavel Zhelnin, Simona Toscano, K. Hanson, C. C. Lin, Zsuzsa Márka, L. Gerhardt, Gabriel Collin, Manish Khanal, John Hardin, Andrés Medina, Juanan Aguilar, Johannes Werthebach, Matti Jansson, Steven W. Barwick, Jim Braun, Enrico Ellinger, Dave Besson, Rebecca Corley, C. Walck, Xianwu Xu, Spencer Axani, Nora Feigl, Riya Shah, Jim Madsen, Chris Wendt, Elizabeth Warrick, A. Connolly, Doug Cowen, Miriam Neumann, Jiyuan Liao, N. van Eijndhoven, M. Santander, E. Resconi, Per Arne Sevle Myhr, Zoe Brisson-Tsavoussis, Shoukat Ali, Ramy Hmaid, Sonke Schwirn, Leo Seen, Grace Sanger-Johnson, Marco Scarnera, Stephen DiKerby, Logan Molchany, Brandon Henke, Hani KimKu, Joe Baines-Holmes, Lars Marten, D. Mousadi, Emile Moyaux, Vaidehi Poojyam, I. Reistroffer, Amar Thakuri, Lene van Rootselaar, Ilya Bodo, Thomas Delmeulle, Lasse Dueser, Steven Eulig
article en

Abstract

IceCube is a neutrino observatory located at the South Pole that uses Antarctic ice as a medium for detection of Cherenkov photons. As such, analysis of the data relies on our understanding of the properties of ice within and around the instrumented volume. Over the years we have made significant progress in understanding the glacial ice and now have a comprehensive model that covers many of the relevant aspects of the photon propagation in it. In this report we give a historical overview of the ice description within the IceCube detector, list some of the remaining issues, and assess how much more improvement is still needed. As the IceCube Upgrade is expected to be installed in less than a year, with several new types of calibration devices aiming to further our understanding of ice, this is the perfect time to review the current state of the ice model.

National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nvidia, Michigan State University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Office of Polar Programs, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
Openalex Percentile: Top 69%
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.