The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) has been in operation since April, 1998. Light and heavy water fill was completed in April, 1999, and since May, 1999 the detector has been taking physics data. The SNO detector is a 1000 tonne heavy water Cerenkov detector situated 2070 m (5900 m.w.e.) underground in INCO's Creighton Mine near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, and involves participation from approximately 80 scientists in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Through the use of heavy water, SNO will be able to detect neutrinos from a number of reactions, including one specifically sensitive to solar electron neutrinos and another which is sensitive to all neutrino types. With these two interactions, the detector will be able to search for neutrino flavor change without the requirement of electron neutrino flux normalization by solar model calculations. It will also provide unusual sensitivity for other measurements of solar neutrino properties, atmospheric neutrinos and supernova neutrinos