J OllmaL of CLaciolog)l. Vol. 4,1,:\0,1 39, 1995 On the age vs depth and optical clarity of deep the South Pole

• Main Author: Ice At
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.430.1416; http://www.igsoc.org/journal/41/139/igs_journal_vol41_issue139_pg445-454.pdf

ABSTRACT. The first fo ur strings of pho to tubes for th e!\).IA:\D, \ hi g h-energy neutrino o bsen-a tory are no\\ ' frozen in place a t a dep th o f 800 1000 III in ice a t the South Po le, During th e 1995 96 season, as m a n y as six mo re strings will be d eployed a t greater d e pths, Provided a bso rption, scattering and refra ctio n o f ' \-isible li g ht a rc suffi cientl y sm a ll, the traj ecto ry of a muo n into \\,hi ch a neutrino conve rts ca n be determined b y using the a rrav of ' pho to tubes to measure the arri\'al times or C herenko\ ' li g ht emitted b y the muon, T o help in d eciding on th e d epth for impla nta ti o n of th e six new strings, we disc uss models of age vs d epth for So uth Pole ice, we estima te mean free pa ths [or scattering from bubbles a nd dust as a fun c ti o n 0(' depth and wc aSSL:SS distortio n o f light pa ths due to refi-anion a t crysta l bound a ri cs a nd interfaces be twee n a ir-h vdra te inclusions a nd norma l ice, \Ve conclude tha t lhe illlen 'al 1600 2 100 m 11 ' (11 be suit a bl y tra nspa rent for a future I km:; obsen '<l tory except possibly in a reg io n a fe\l ' tens of me ters thick a t a d e pth corres ponding to a pea k in the dust COll ee n tra ti o n a t 60 k yea r HP