High Energy Neutrino Astronomy: WIN 99

Although high energy neutrino astronomy is a multidisciplinary science, gamma ray bursts have become the theoretical focus since recent astronomical observations revealed their potential as cosmic particle accelerators. This spotlight is shared with investigations of the potential of high energy telescopes to observe oscillating atmospheric neutrinos. The Superkamiokande results have boosted atmospheric neutrinos from a calibration tool and a background for doing astronomy, to an opportunity to confirm the evidence for neutrino mass. Nevertheless, the highlights are mostly on the experimental front with the completion of the first-generation Baikal and AMANDA detectors. Neutrino signals from the Lake Baikal detector bode well for the flurry of activities in the Mediterranean. The completed AMANDA telescope announced first light, neutrinos actually, at this meeting.Comment: 14 pages, Latex2.09, uses sprocl.sty and epsf.sty, 5 postscript figures. Talk presented at the 17th International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos, Cape Town, South Africa, January 199

Underwater Laboratories for Astroparticle Physics and Deep Sea Science

The exploration of deep sea environments is presently at the dawn of a new era: underwater laboratories, permanently installed on the sea floor and offering power and on-line data transmission links to the shore, will allow to continuously monitor oceanographical properties. An important boost in this direction has been provided by the high energy physics scientific community, that aims at the realization of an underwater detector for cosmic high energy neutrinos. Neutrinos are considered a very promising probe for high energy astrophysics and many indications suggest that some of the most energetic sources known in the universe could also be high energy neutrino sources. The expected neutrino fluxes indicate that a km3-scale detector must be realised to achieve this ambitious aim. The quest for the realization of such a detector in the Mediterranean Sea has already started

Inertial bioluminescence rhythms at the Capo Passero (KM3NeT-Italia) site, Central Mediterranean Sea

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analysis of Photosynthetic Rate and Bio-Optical Components from Ocean Color Imagery

Our research over the last 5 years indicates that the successful transformation of ocean color imagery into maps of bio-optical properties will require continued development and testing of algorithms. In particular improvements in the accuracy of predicting from ocean color imagery the concentration of the bio-optical components of sea as well as the rate of photosynthesis will require progress in at least three areas: (1) we must improve mathematical models of the growth and physiological acclimation of phytoplankton; (2) we must better understand the sources of variability in the absorption and backscattering properties of phytoplankton and associated microparticles; and (3) we must better understand how the radiance distribution just below the sea surface varies as a function sun and sky conditions and inherent optical properties

Transmission of light in deep sea water at the site of the ANTARES neutrino telescope

The ANTARES neutrino telescope is a large photomultiplier array designed to detect neutrino-induced upward-going muons by their Cherenkov radiation. Understanding the absorption and scattering of light in the deep Mediterranean is fundamental to optimising the design and performance of the detector. This paper presents measurements of blue and UV light transmission at the ANTARES site taken between 1997 and 2000. The derived values for the scattering length and the angular distribution of particulate scattering were found to be highly correlated, and results are therefore presented in terms of an absorption length;,ab, and an effective scattering length lambda(sct)(eff). The values for blue (UV) light are found to be lambda(abs) similar or equal to 60(26) m, lambda(sct)(eff similar or equal to) 265(122) m, with significant (similar to15%) time variability. Finally, the results of ANTARES simulations showing the effect of these water properties on the anticipated performance of the detector are presented