Measurement of acoustic attenuation in South Pole ice

• Main Authors: Aguilar Sanchez, Juan Antonio, Bechet, Sabrina, Bertrand, Daniel, Labare, Mathieu, Petrovic, Jéléna, Swillens, Quentin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Physique des particules élémentaires; Acoustic attenuation; Acoustics; Ice; Neutrino astronomy; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/118345; https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/118345/3/Elsevier_99185.pdf

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. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 0 SCOPUS: ar.j info:eu-repo/semantics/published