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. A., Ahlers, M., Andeen, K., Auffenberg, J., Bai, X., Baker, Mark D., Barwick, S. W., Bay, R., Bazo Alba, J. L., Beattie, K., Beatty, J. J., Bechet, S., Becker, J. K., Becker, K.-H., Benabderrahmane, M. L., Berdermann, J., Berghaus, P., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Bertrand, D., Besson, D. Z., Bissok, M., Blaufuss, E., Boersma, D. J., Bohm, C., Böser, S., Botner, O., Bradley, L., Braun, J., Buitink, S., Carson, M., Chirkin, D., Christy, B., Clem, J., Clevermann, F., Cohen, S., Colnard, C., Cowen, D. F., d'Agostino, M. V., Danninger, M., de Clercq, C., Demirörs, L., Depaepe, O., Descamps, F., Desiati, P., de Vries-Uiterweerd, G., Deyoung, T., Díaz-Vélez, J. C., Dreyer, J., Dumm, J. P., Duvoort, M. R., Ehrlich, R., Eisch, J., Ellsworth, R. W., Engdegård, O., Euler, S., Evenson, P. A., Fadiran, O., Fazely, A. R., Feusels, T., Filimonov, K., Finley, C., Foerster, M. M., Fox, B. D., Franckowiak, A., Franke, R., Gaisser, T. K., Gallagher, J., Ganugapati, R., Geisler, M., Gerhardt, L., Gladstone, L., Glüsenkamp, T., Goldschmidt, A., Goodman, J. A., Grant, D., Griesel, T., Gross, A., Grullon, S., Gunasingha, R. M., Gurtner, M., Gustafsson, L., Ha, C., Hallgren, A., Halzen, F., Han, K., Hanson, K., Helbing, K., Herquet, P., Hickford, S., Hill, G. C., Hoffman, K. D., Homeier, A., Hoshina, K., Hubert, D., Huelsnitz, W., Hülss, J.-P., Hulth, P. O., Hultqvist, K., Hussain, S., Imlay, R. L., Ishihara, A., Jacobsen, J., Japaridze, G. S., Johansson, H., Joseph, J. M., Kampert, K.-H., Kappes, A., Karg, T., Karle, A., Kelley, J. L., Kemming, N., Kenny, P., Kiryluk, J., Kislat, F., Klein, S. R., Knops, S., Köhne, J.-H., Kohnen, G., Kolanoski, H., Köpke, L., Koskinen, D. J., Kowalski, M., Kowarik, T., Krasberg, M., Krings, T., Kroll, G., Kuehn, K., Kuwabara, T., Labare, M., Lafebre, S., Laihem, K., Landsman, H., Lauer, R., Lehmann, R., Lennarz, D., Lünemann, J., Madsen, Jens, Majumdar, P., Maruyama, R., Mase, K., Matis, H. S., Matusik, M., Meagher, K., Merck, M., Mészáros, P., Meures, T., Middell, E., Milke, N., Montaruli, T., Morse, R., Movit, S. M., Nahnhauer, R., Nam, J. W., Naumann, U., Niessen, P., Nygren, D. R., Odrowski, S., Olivas, A., Olivo, M., Ono, M., Panknin, S., Paul, L., Pérez de Los Heros, C., Petrovic, J., Piegsa, A., Pieloth, D., Porrata, R., Posselt, J., Price, P. B., Prikockis, M., Przybylski, G. T., Rawlins, K., Redl, P., Resconi, E., Rhode, W., Ribordy, M., Rizzo, A., Rodrigues, J. P., Roth, P., Rothmaier, F., Rott, C., Roucelle, C., Ruhe, T., Rutledge, D., Ruzybayev, B., Ryckbosch, D., Sander, H.-G., Sarkar, S., Schatto, K., Schlenstedt, S., Schmidt, T., Schneider, D., Schukraft, A., Schultes, A., Schulz, O., Schunck, M., Seckel, D., Semburg, B., Seo, S. H., Sestayo, Y., Seunarine, S., Silvestri, A., Slipak, A., Spiczak, G. M., Spiering, C., Stamatikos, M., Stanev, T., Stephens, G., Stezelberger, T., Stokstad, R. G., Stoyanov, S., Strahler, E. A., Straszheim, T., Sullivan, G. W., Swillens, Q., Taboada, I., Tamburro, A., Tarasova, O., Tepe, A., Ter-Antonyan, S., Tilav, S., Toale, P. A., Tosi, D., Turčan, D., van Eijndhoven, N., Vandenbroucke, J., van Overloop, A., van Santen, J., Voigt, B., Walck, C., Waldenmaier, T., Wallraff, M., Walter, M., Wendt, C., Westerhoff, S., Whitehorn, N., Wiebe, K., Wiebusch, C. H., Wikström, G., Williams, D. R., Wischnewski, R., Wissing, H., Woschnagg, K., Xu, C., Xu, X. W., Yanez, J. P., Yodh, G., Yoshida, S., Zarzhitsky, P.
• Other Authors: Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, APC - Cosmologie, AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: [SDU.ASTR.HE]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]; [PHYS.ASTR.HE]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena [astro-ph.HE]; [SDU.ASTR.CO]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; [PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; South pole
• Online Access: https://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-00706829; 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.