Brief communication: Precision measurement of the index of refraction of deep glacial ice at radio frequencies at Summit Station, Greenland

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Author: C. Welling
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2024
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Geology; QE1-996.5; Greenland; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3433-2024; https://doaj.org/article/1435101d75d241db8e4ca9aa9294794a

We report on the measurement of the index of refraction of glacial ice at radio frequencies at Summit Station, Greenland. This measurement is of particular importance for the Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland, an experiment currently under construction at Summit Station that seeks to detect radio signals from ultra-high-energy neutrino interactions in the ice. By correlating radio reflections in the bulk ice with features in the conductivity measurements from ice cores, we determine the index of refraction as n = 1.778 ± 0.006 <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="87pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="6fcdb26f9cc0e1e644c1e5df06375328"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-18-3433-2024-ie00001.svg" width="87pt" height="10pt" src="tc-18-3433-2024-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> .