An Acoustic Calibration System for the IceCube Upgrade

TL;DR

This paper introduces an acoustic calibration system for the IceCube Upgrade, aiming to precisely determine optical sensor positions within 10 cm to improve the detector's angular resolution and overall physics capabilities.

Contribution

It presents a novel acoustic calibration system with sensors and emitters designed for high-precision geometry calibration in the IceCube neutrino observatory.

Findings

Achieved calibration precision of 10 cm using acoustic trilateration.

Demonstrated the system's potential to complement existing optical calibration methods.

Enhanced the detector's angular resolution and physics performance.

Abstract

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory will be upgraded with about 700 additional optical sensor modules and new calibration devices. Particularly, improved calibration will enhance IceCube's physics capabilities both at low and high neutrino energies. An important ingredient for a good angular resolution of the observatory is a precise calibration of the positions of optical sensors. We present the concept of newly developed acoustic sensors that are mounted inside the optical modules and additional acoustic emitter modules that are attached to the strings. With this system we aim for the calibration of the detectors' geometry with a precision of 10\,cm by means of trilateration of the arrival times of acoustic signals. This new method will allow for an improved and complementary geometry calibration with respect to previously used methods based on optical flashers and drill logging data.