Optical properties of the South Pole ice at depths between 0.8-km and 1-km
Dec, 199416 pages
Published in:
- Science 267 (1995) 1147-1150
e-Print:
- astro-ph/9412028 [astro-ph]
Experiments:
View in:
Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
The optical properties of the ice at the geographical South Pole have been investigated at depths between 0.8 and 1 kilometers. The absorption and scattering lengths of visible light (515 nm) have been measured {\it in situ } using the laser calibration setup of the AMANDA neutrino detector. The ice is intrinsically extremely transparent. The measured absorption length is 59 3 meters, comparable with the quality of the ultra-pure water used in the IMB and Kamiokande proton-decay and neutrino experiments and more than two times longer than the best value reported for laboratory ice. Due to a residual density of air bubbles at these depths, the trajectories of photons in the medium are randomized. Assuming bubbles are smooth and spherical, the average distance between collisions at 1 km depth is about 25 cm. The measured inverse scattering length on bubbles decreases linearly with increasing depth in the volume of ice investigated.Note:
- Accepted for publication in Science. 16 pages uuencoded PostScript
- introductory
- photon: absorption
- absorption: photon
- photon: scattering length
- scattering length: photon
- AMANDA
- experimental results
References(10)
Figures(0)