In situ, broadband measurement of the radio frequency attenuation length at Summit Station, Greenland

• Main Authors: Aguilar, J. A, Allison, P, Beatty, J. J, Besson, D, Bishop, A, Botner, O, Bouma, S, Buitink, S, Cataldo, M, Clark, B. A, Curtis-Ginsberg, Z, Connolly, A, Dasgupta, P, de Kockere, S, de Vries, K. D, Deaconu, C, DuVernois, M. A, Glaser, C, Hallgren, A, Hallmann, S, Hanson, J. C, Hendricks, B, Hornhuber, C, Hughes, K, Karle, A, Kelley, J. L, Kravchenko, I, Krebs, R, Lahmann, R, Latif, U, Mammo, J, Meyers, Z. S, Michaels, K, Mulrey, K, Nelles, A, Novikov, A, Nozdrina, A, Oberla, E, Oeyen, B, Pan, Y, Pandya, H, Plaisier, I, Punsuebsay, N, Pyras, L, Ryckbosch, D, Scholten, O, Seckel, D, Seikh, M. F. H, Smith, D, Southall, D, Torres, J, Toscano, S, Tosi, D, Broeck, D. J. Van Den, van Eijndhoven, N, Vieregg, A. G, Welling, C, Williams, D. R, Wissel, S, Young, R, Zink, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 02-08-2022
• Subjects: Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2201.07846

Over the last 25 years, radiowave detection of neutrino-generated signals,
using cold polar ice as the neutrino target, has emerged as perhaps the most
promising technique for detection of extragalactic ultra-high energy neutrinos
(corresponding to neutrino energies in excess of 0.01 Joules, or $10^{17}$
electron volts). During the summer of 2021 and in tandem with the initial
deployment of the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G), we conducted
radioglaciological measurements at Summit Station, Greenland to refine our
understanding of the ice target. We report the result of one such measurement,
the radio-frequency electric field attenuation length $L_\alpha$. We find an
approximately linear dependence of $L_\alpha$ on frequency with the best fit of
the average field attenuation for the upper 1500 m of ice: $\langle L_\alpha
\rangle = \big( (1154 \pm 121) - (0.81 \pm 0.14) (\nu/$MHz$)\big)$ m for
frequencies $\nu \in [145 - 350]$ MHz.