Design and performance of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup

Understand

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.