Measurement of acoustic attenuation in South Pole ice

• Published in: Astroparticle Physics
• Main Authors: Abbasi, R., Abdou, Y., Abu-Zayyad, T., Adams, J., Aguilar, J., Ahlers, M., Andeen, K., Auffenberg, J., Bai, X., Baker, M., Barwick, S., Bay, R., Bazo Alba, J., Beattie, K., Beatty, J., Bechet, S., Becker, J., Becker, K., Benabderrahmane, M., Berdermann, J., Berghaus, P., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Bertrand, D., Besson, D., Bissok, M., Blaufuss, E., Boersma, D., Bohm, C., Böser, S., Botner, O., Bradley, L., Braun, J., Buitink, S., Carson, Michael, Chirkin, D., Christy, B., Clem, J., Clevermann, F., Cohen, S., Colnard, C., Cowen, D., D'Agostino, M., Danninger, M., De Clercq, C., Demirörs, L., Depaepe, O., Descamps, F., Desiati, P., De Vries-Uiterweerd, G., Deyoung, T., Díaz-Vélez, J., Dreyer, J., Dumm, J., Duvoort, M., Ehrlich, R., Eisch, J., Ellsworth, R., Engdegrd, O., Euler, S., Evenson, P., Fadiran, O., Fazely, A., Feusels, T., Filimonov, K., Finley, C., Foerster, M., Fox, B., Franckowiak, A., Franke, R., Gaisser, T., Gallagher, J., Ganugapati, R., Geisler, M., Gerhardt, L., Gladstone, L., Glüsenkamp, T., Goldschmidt, A., Goodman, J., Grant, D., Griesel, T., Groß, A., Grullon, S., Gunasingha, R., Gurtner, M., Gustafsson, L., Ha, C., Hallgren, A., Halzen, F., Han, K., Hanson, K., Helbing, K., Herquet, P., Hickford, S., Hill, G., Hoffman, K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11013; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.10.003

Using the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) and a retrievable transmitter deployed in holes drilled for the IceCube experiment, we have measured the attenuation of acoustic signals by South Pole ice at depths between 190 m and 500 m. Three data sets, using different acoustic sources, have been analyzed and give consistent results. The method with the smallest systematic uncertainties yields an amplitude attenuation coefficient α = 3.20 ± 0.57 km−1 between 10 and 30 kHz, considerably larger than previous theoretical estimates. Expressed as an attenuation length, the analyses give a consistent result for λ ≡ 1/α of ~300 m with 20% uncertainty. No significant depth or frequency dependence has been found.