The installation is designed to register natural flows of muons and high-energy neutrinos and conduct research based on the analysis and processing of accumulated data.
The installation is located 4 km from the shore of Lake Baikal at a depth of 1100-1300 m. The operating principle is based on the registration of Cherenkov radiation (light flashes) caused by the passage of relativistic particles in the aquatic environment. Registration is performed by 228 optical modules that form a spatial lattice at a depth of 1100-1300 m. The telescope also includes hydrological equipment for continuous monitoring of the state of the aquatic environment. All work on installing deep-sea equipment is carried out from the ice cover of Lake Baikal.
The telescope is controlled and data is collected using a local network of underwater computers. The power supply of the installation and signals are transmitted via bottom cables laid from the telescope to the Coastal Center, where preliminary signal processing and transmission of accumulated data via Radio-Internet communication lines to research centers in Irkutsk, Moscow and Germany are performed. The design of the telescope and the data processing system make it possible to determine the direction of particle arrival with an accuracy of 1.5 to 4 degrees, depending on the task being solved, and the energy spectrum of particle fluxes above 10 TeV.