South Pole Air Shower Experiment for Gamma Ray Astronomy at Ultra-High Energy

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The South Pole Air Shower Experiment (SPASE) is a large (approximately 100 meter square) array of scintillation detectors which measures very energetic particles produced by interactions of cosmic ray with the Earth's atmosphere. Spase was first installed at South Pole in late 1987 and has operated almost continuously since then with several improvements. The experiment is intended to search for sources of gamma rays with the expectation that such sources would also be the long sought sources of charged cosmic rays. In the first 5 years of operation SPASE has not found an unambiguous constant source, though there is a candidate. There are also candidate pulsed sources which may have been detected. These results are consistent with all similar experiment in the Southern Hemisphere. It is planned to operate SPASE in conjunction with the new detectors which are being installed as part of the AMANDA (Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array). These new detectors will provide additional information on the muon content of the air showers and therefore reduce the charged cosmic ray background and increase the likelihood of detection of gamma rays.