After the hole is drilled, the deployment team takes over the tower to lower a string of 60 DOMs into the hole. This step is called deployment. The process begins with attaching a five hundred pound weight to the bottom of the cable. Then as the cable spools off the reel, DOMs are secured to the cable and electrical connections made. About 12-13 hours pass until all of the DOMs are attached and the string has reached its full depth. After deployment, a "hole cover" is put in place and the string is connected to the surface cabling at the surface junction box. Cables then go from the surface junction box to the computers in the IceCube Lab. After the sensors are in place and the electronics have been tested, calibrated, and verified, the Data Acquisition System begins to accumulate and save the data signals. When a neutrino collision occurs the sensors detect the blue light of the Cerenkov radiation produced by the resulting muon. Examination of the data from the array of DOMs allows IceCube scientists to determine the direction and energy of the neutrino that produced the muon.
