Seismic and Gravity Studies at the South Pole

Weihaupt, John G.

doi:10.1190/1.1439232

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The shear wave speed is ∼ 1/2 the pressure wave speed, as expected [11]. In the firn (the shallowest ∼200 m, where the ice is not fully compactified), our pressure wave speed results agree with a previous measurement [12]. We have completed the first measurement of pressure wave speed beneath the firn and of shear wave speed in both the firn and bulk (fully compactified) ice.…”

Section: Sound Speedsupporting

confidence: 79%

Measurement of acoustic properties of South Pole ice for neutrino astronomy

Vandenbroucke

2009

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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South Pole ice is predicted to be the best medium for acoustic neutrino detection. Moreover, ice is the only medium in which all three dense-medium detection methods (optical, radio, and acoustic) can be used to monitor the same interaction volume. Events detected in coincidence between two methods allow significant background rejection confidence, which is necessary to study rare GZK neutrinos. In 2007 and 2008 the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) was installed as a research and development project associated with the IceCube experiment. The purpose of SPATS is to measure the acoustic ice properties at the South Pole in order to determine the feasibility of a future large hybrid array. The deployment and performance of SPATS are described, as are first results and work in progress on the sound speed, background noise, and attenuation.

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Section: Sound Speedsupporting

confidence: 79%

Measurement of acoustic properties of South Pole ice for neutrino astronomy

Vandenbroucke

2009

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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“…The uncertainty of the emission time is simply that of the HV pulser time delay, including variation with temperature: ±0.05 ms. Figure 4 shows our measurement of the sound speed versus depth for both pressure and shear waves. A previous measurement of pressure wave speed in firn [17] is shown for comparison. Table 1 shows the error budget for two example data points in the analysis.…”

Section: Propagation Timementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to pure interest in elastic materials physics, the measurement has applications to both geophysics [15], [16] and neutrino astronomy [7]. At the South Pole, one measurement was made previously for pressure waves at seismic frequencies, for depths between 0 m and 186 m (i.e., in the layer of uncompactified surface snow, or "firn"), using surface explosions [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of sound speed vs. depth in South Pole ice for neutrino astronomy

Abbasi

Abdou

Ackermann³

et al. 2010

Astroparticle Physics

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We have measured the speed of both pressure waves and shear waves as a function of depth between 80 and 500 m depth in South Pole ice with better than 1% precision. The measurements were made using the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS), an array of transmitters and sensors deployed in the ice at South Pole Station in order to measure the acoustic properties relevant to acoustic detection of astrophysical neutrinos. The transmitters and sensors use piezoceramics operating at ∼5-25 kHz. Between 200 m and 500 m depth, the measured profile is consistent with zero variation of the sound speed with depth, resulting in zero refraction, for both pressure and shear waves. We also performed a complementary study featuring an explosive signal propagating from 50 to 2250 m depth, from which we determined a value for the pressure wave speed consistent with that determined with the sensors operating at shallower depths and higher frequencies. These results have encouraging implications for neutrino astronomy: The negligible refraction of acoustic waves deeper than 200 m indicates that good neutrino direction and energy reconstruction, as well as separation from background events, could be achieved.

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“…Parameterization of Eq. 3 is obtained using a fit of in-ice sound speed data points [9,2]. These conditions are taken into account by integrating along the path between source and sensor using the parameterized value of v s at every point.…”

Section: Acoustic Event Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole

Abbasi

Abdou

Abu‐Zayyad

et al. 2012

Astroparticle Physics

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The detection of acoustic signals from ultra-high energy neutrino interactions is a promising method to measure the flux of cosmogenic neutrinos expected on Earth. The energy threshold for this process depends strongly on the absolute noise level in the target material. The South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS), deployed in the upper part of four boreholes of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, has monitored the noise in Antarctic ice at the geographic South Pole for more than two years down to 500 m depth. The noise is very stable and Gaussian distributed. Lacking an in-situ calibration up to now, laboratory measurements have been used to estimate the absolute noise level in the 10 to 50 kHz frequency range to be smaller than 20 mPa. Using a threshold trigger, sensors of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup registered acoustic events in the IceCube detector volume and its vicinity. Acoustic signals from refreezing IceCube holes and from anthropogenic sources have been used to test the localization of acoustic events. An upper limit on the neutrino flux at energies E ν > 10 11 GeV is derived from acoustic data taken over eight months.

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Seismic and Gravity Studies at the South Pole

Cited by 19 publications

References 2 publications

Measurement of acoustic properties of South Pole ice for neutrino astronomy

Measurement of acoustic properties of South Pole ice for neutrino astronomy

Measurement of sound speed vs. depth in South Pole ice for neutrino astronomy

Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole

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