Measuring the optical properties of IceCube drill holes

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory consists of 5160 digital optical modules (DOMs) in a cubic kilometer of deep ice below the South Pole. The DOMs record the Cherenkov light from charged particles interacting in the ice. A good understanding of the optical properties of the ice is crucial to the quality of the event reconstruction. While the optical properties of the undisturbed ice are well understood, the properties of the refrozen drill holes still pose a challenge. A new data-acquisition and analysis approach using light originating from LEDs within one DOM detected by the photomultiplier of the same DOM will be described. This method allows us to explore the scattering length in the immediate vicinity of the considered DOMs.