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Main Authors: Aghaei, O., Agostini, M., Agreda, S., Wight, A. Alexander, Barbeau, P. S., Baron, A. J., Bash, S., Bellenghi, C., Biffard, B., Boehmer, M., Brandenburg, M., Brussow, D., Cedarblade-Jones, N., Charlton, M., Crudele, B., Danninger, M., De Leo, F. C., DeYoung, T., Fuchs, F., Gärtner, A., Garriz, J., Ghuman, D., Ginzkey, L., Gousy-Leblanc, V., Grant, D., Grimes, A., Haack, C., Halliday, R., Hembroff, D., Henningsen, F., Hutchinson, J., Jenkyns, R., Karanth, S., Kerscher, T., Kershtein, S., Kopański, K., Kopper, C., Krause, P., Krauss, C. B., Kulin, I., Kurahashi, N., Gualda, C. Lagunas, Lam, A., Lavallee, T., Leismüller, K., Li, R., Loipolder, S., Ponce, A. Magaña, Magel, S., Malecki, P., Marshall, G. G., Martin, T., Mihaly, S., Miller, C., Molberg, N., Moore, R., Nührenbörger, B., Nichol, B., Noga, W., Ørsøe, R., Papp, L., Parrish, V., Paulson, M., Pfahler, P., Pirenne, B., Price, E., Rahlin, A., Rangen, M., Resconi, E., Ridsdale, C., Robertson, S., Round, A., Salazar-Gallegos, D., Scholz, A., Schumacher, L., Sharma, S., Spannfellner, C., Stacho, J., Taboada, I., Thurber, A. R., Tradewell, M., Twagirayezu, J. P., Nisa, M. Un, Veenstra, B., Wagner, S., Weaver, C., Whitehorn, N., Winter, L., Wolf, M., Wroński, R., Wynne, J. H., Yañez, J. P., Zaalishvili, A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Instrumentation and Detectors
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09086
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Table of Contents:
  • STRings for Absorption Length in Water (STRAW)-a and b were pathfinder instruments deployed to characterize the anticipated site of the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), which is a future neutrino telescope that will be located in the North Pacific Ocean. Measurements of the evolution of the optical transmission efficiency from STRAW-a showed a decline over the detector's lifetime for the upward-facing modules. Video footage of the pathfinders strongly suggested this decline was caused by biofouling and sedimentation. We measure the effect of biofouling and sedimentation to be a decrease in the transparency of upward-facing optical surfaces over 5 years of operations. A majority of downward-facing optical surfaces, which will dominate P-ONE's sensitivity to astrophysical sources, showed no visible biofouling. Extrapolations motivated by biological growth models estimated that these losses started around 2.5 years after deployment, and suggest a reduction in transparency ranging from 35$\%$ of the original to complete obscuration for the upward-facing modules. Samples of biofouling were taken in order to identify the microbial diversity of these organisms and inform potential intervention strategies. Results of the microbial samples and a candidate anti-biofouling strategy that will be tested on upcoming P-ONE instruments are discussed.

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