Design and performance of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup
Abstract
The South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) was built to evaluate the acoustic characteristics of the South Pole ice in the 10 kHz to 100 kHz frequency range, for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of an acoustic neutrino detection array at the South Pole. The SPATS hardware consists of four vertical strings deployed in the upper 500 m of the South Pole ice cap. The strings form a trapezoidal array with a maximum baseline of 543 m. Each string has 7 stages equipped with one transmitter and one sensor module. Sound is detected or generated by piezoelectric ceramic elements inside the modules. Analogue signals are sent to the surface on electric cables where they are digitized by a PC-based data acquisition system. The data from all strings are collected on a central computer in the IceCube Laboratory from where they are send to a central data storage facility via a satellite link or stored locally on tape. A technical overview of SPATS and its performance is presented.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1105.4339,
title = {Design and performance of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup},
author = {Yasser Abdou and Karl-Heinz Becker and Jens Berdermann and Martin Bissok and Christian Bohm and Sebastian Boeser and Martin Bothe and Michael Carson and Freija Descamps and Jan-Hendrik Fischer-Wolfarth and Leif Gustafsson and Allan Hallgren and Dirk Heinen and Klaus Helbing and Reinhart Heller and Stephan Hundertmark and Timo Karg and Kevin Krieger and Karim Laihem and Thomas Meures and Rolf Nahnhauer and Uwe Naumann and Filip Oberson and Larissa Paul and Mario Pohl and Buford Price and Mathieu Ribordy and Dirk Ryckbosch and Matthias Schunck and Benjamin Semburg and Jutta Stegmaier and Karl-Heinz Sulanke and Delia Tosi and Justin Vandenbroucke and Christopher Wiebusch},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.4339},
year = {2015}
}