This project will make cosmological measurements of two distinctly different types. 1. The experimenters will make cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) measurements of the absolute brightness of the sky above South Pole at three frequencies, 1.0, 1.5 and 7.5 GHz. Similar measurements were made at the higher two frequencies from Pole in 1989, but the 1.0 GHz radiometer is new. The purpose is to determine if there are deviations from the CMBR temperature of 2.735 K which has been measured at higher frequencies, most notably by the new NASA satellite Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Deviations, at different wavelengths, from the 2.736 K figure would indicate that there has been an input of significant energy into the universe since the time of the big bang. 2. They will attempt to measure microwave radiation coming upwards from the polar ice sheet, which is over two kilometers thick at South Pole. It has been hypothesized that extremely energetic neutrinos that have passed entirely through the Earth can interact in the ice, or rocks just below, and cause a electromagnetic shower that could result in detectable radio emissions. If this is true, then the polar ice sheet could be used as a vast detector for the new field of neutrino astronomy. This project is jointly funded by the Divisions of Polar Programs and Astronomy.
