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Neutrino Observatories and Neutrino Telescopes

A neutrino observatory is a facility that observes natural neutrinos from the Sun, atmosphere, Earth, supernovae or distant astrophysical sources. A neutrino telescope usually refers to a large, directional detector designed for neutrino astronomy—often using deep ice, seawater, lake water, mountains or radio-transparent ice.

1. Major high-energy neutrino telescopes

As of June 2026, the principal very-large-volume optical neutrino telescopes are IceCube, KM3NeT and Baikal-GVD. (KM3NeT)

Observatory or telescope, Location, Detection medium, Main programme

IceCube Neutrino Observatory: South Pole, Antarctica, Deep glacial ice, High-energy cosmic neutrinos, multimessenger astronomy, atmospheric neutrinos and new physics
DeepCore: Inside IceCube, Densely instrumented ice, Lower-energy atmospheric neutrinos and neutrino oscillations
IceTop: Surface above IceCube, Ice-Cherenkov tanks, Cosmic rays and air showers; supports IceCube analyses
KM3NeT–ARCA: Offshore Sicily, Italy, Deep Mediterranean seawater, TeV–PeV cosmic-neutrino astronomy
KM3NeT–ORCA: Offshore Toulon, France, Deep Mediterranean seawater Atmospheric-neutrino oscillations and neutrino mass ordering
Baikal-GVD: Lake Baikal, Russia, Deep freshwater, High-energy cosmic-neutrino astronomy

2. Underground water and liquid-scintillator observatories

Super-Kamiokande — Japan: Large water-Cherenkov observatory studying solar, atmospheric, accelerator and supernova neutrinos, as well as proton decay.
JUNO — Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, China: A 20-kiloton liquid-scintillator observatory for reactor, solar, atmospheric, geo- and supernova neutrinos. JUNO began physics operation in 2025 and announced its first scientific results in June 2026. (juno.ihep.cas.cn)
SNO+ — SNOLAB, Canada: Multipurpose liquid-scintillator detector for solar, reactor, geo- and supernova neutrinos and neutrinoless double-beta decay.
KamLAND — Kamioka, Japan: Liquid-scintillator observatory known for reactor antineutrinos, geoneutrinos and solar-neutrino studies. The KamLAND-Zen 800 phase ended data collection in January 2024, followed by preparations for the upgraded KamLAND2 programme.
Baksan Neutrino Observatory — Russia: Includes the Baksan Underground Scintillation Telescope, SAGE facilities and supernova-neutrino monitoring systems.
Large Volume Detector—LVD — Gran Sasso, Italy: Large liquid-scintillator detector primarily intended to monitor neutrino bursts from stellar core-collapse events. (lngs.infn.it)
HALO—Helium and Lead Observatory — SNOLAB, Canada: Running lead-and-helium detector dedicated to detecting neutrinos from a Galactic supernova. (snolab.ca)

3. Next-generation optical observatories

Project, Proposed location or medium, Main purpose

Hyper-Kamiokande: Japan; underground water Cherenkov, Accelerator, atmospheric, solar and supernova neutrinos; CP violation and proton decay
DUNE—Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment: South Dakota, USA; liquid argon, Long-baseline oscillations, supernova neutrinos, nucleon decay and new physics
IceCube-Gen2: South Pole ice, Much larger optical and radio extension of IceCube
P-ONE—Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment: Cascadia Basin, Canada, Multi-cubic-kilometre Pacific Ocean neutrino telescope
TRIDENT—Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope: South China Sea, Large tropical deep-sea cosmic-neutrino observatory
HUNT—High-energy Underwater Neutrino Telescope: South China Sea or Lake Baikal, Proposed ultra-large underwater telescope with prototype instruments
Jinping Neutrino Experiment: China Jinping Underground Laboratory, Solar, geo-, reactor and supernova neutrino programme
THEIA: Proposed underground site, Hybrid water-based-liquid-scintillator detector
KamLAND2: Kamioka, Japan, Successor and major upgrade to KamLAND; Hyper-Kamiokande is the much larger successor to Super-Kamiokande. (hyper-k.org) DUNE’s planned far detector consists of four 17,000-ton liquid-argon modules about 1,475 metres underground. (dunescience.org) IceCube-Gen2 would expand the instrumented optical volume to roughly 8 km³ and add a large radio array. (IceCube)

4. Radio neutrino observatories and arrays

These instruments detect short radio pulses produced by neutrino-induced particle cascades, particularly through the Askaryan effect.

RNO-G—Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland
Under construction at Summit Station, Greenland, for neutrinos above PeV energies. (Radio Neutrino Observatory)
ARA—Askaryan Radio Array
In-ice radio-antenna stations near the South Pole. (ara.wipac.wisc.edu)
ARIANNA—Antarctic Ross Ice-Shelf Antenna Neutrino Array
Radio detector and prototype stations on the Ross Ice Shelf. (ccapp.osu.edu)
PUEO—Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations
NASA-supported Antarctic balloon observatory; its first flight launched in December 2025 and completed a 23-day Antarctic mission. (NASA)
GRAND—Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection
Proposed worldwide network of enormous ground-based radio arrays; GRANDProto300 is its pathfinder. (grand.cnrs.fr)
ANITA—Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna
Four historical Antarctic balloon flights that used the Antarctic ice sheet as the neutrino target; scientific successor to ANITA is PUEO.
RICE—Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment
Historical South Pole in-ice radio-neutrino experiment.

5. Earth-skimming tau-neutrino telescopes

These projects search for tau neutrinos that interact inside mountains or the Earth and produce an emerging tau lepton and an upward-going air shower.

TAMBO—Tau Air-Shower Mountain-Based Observatory
Proposed detector in Peru’s Colca Canyon, primarily targeting PeV tau neutrinos. (arXiv)
Trinity Neutrino Observatory
Imaging-Cherenkov telescope concept for Earth-skimming tau neutrinos; the Trinity Demonstrator was deployed in 2023. (arXiv)
GRAND
Mountain-region radio arrays for horizontal and upward-going neutrino-induced air showers.
BEACON—Beamforming Elevated Array for COsmic Neutrinos
Elevated radio-array concept for Earth-skimming tau neutrinos.
POEMMA—Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
Proposed space-based observatory capable of observing upward tau-neutrino air showers.
EUSO-SPB and EUSO-SPB2
Balloon-borne pathfinder instruments investigating extensive air showers, including possible tau-neutrino events.
Pierre Auger Observatory
Primarily a cosmic-ray observatory but also sensitive to very inclined and Earth-skimming tau-neutrino air showers.

6. Historical underwater and under-ice neutrino telescopes

AMANDA—Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array
ANTARES—Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss Environmental Research
Baikal NT-36
Baikal NT-96
Baikal NT-200
Baikal NT-200+
DUMAND—Deep Underwater Muon and Neutrino Detector
NESTOR—Neutrino Extended Submarine Telescope with Oceanographic Research
NEMO—NEutrino Mediterranean Observatory
RICE—Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment

AMANDA was the under-ice predecessor of IceCube. NESTOR and NEMO were Mediterranean pathfinder projects that contributed to KM3NeT development. (Inspire) ANTARES operated in the Mediterranean from 2006 until February 2022 and was fully dismantled in June 2022. (antares.in2p3.fr)

7. Historical solar, atmospheric and supernova-neutrino observatories

Homestake Chlorine Experiment
Kamiokande and Kamiokande-II
IMB—Irvine–Michigan–Brookhaven Detector
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory—SNO
Borexino
GALLEX
GNO—Gallium Neutrino Observatory
SAGE—Soviet–American Gallium Experiment
LSD—Mont Blanc Liquid Scintillation Detector
MACRO—Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observatory
Fréjus Detector
Kolar Gold Fields neutrino experiments

Homestake, Kamiokande, SAGE, GALLEX/GNO, SNO and Borexino formed the central historical sequence of solar-neutrino observatories. (Inspire) Borexino ended data acquisition on October 7, 2021, after which decommissioning began. (Borexino)