The goals of this experiment are to determine the potential of the radio-detection technique for measuring the high energy cosmic neutrino flux, determining the sources of this flux, and measuring neutrino-nucleon cross sections at energies above those accessible with existing accelerators.
Such an experiment also has sensitivity to neutrinos from gamma ray bursts, as well as highly ionizing charged particles (monopoles, e.g.) traversing the Antarctic icecap.
The experiment's radio receivers were located 100–350 meters deep under the ice-sheet directly below the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (MAPO) at the South Pole Station.
During the 1996–97 season, a prototype array of three antennas was deployed down the (AMANDA) bore holes at depths from 140–210 meters.
This prototype demonstrated the ability to successfully deploy receivers and transmitters and enabled an estimate of the noise temperature in the deep ice.