Knowledge Bank

High energy astrophysical neutrinos are useful for understanding the origins of high energy cosmic rays, which have been a mystery for almost a century. Such neutrinos can be detected via coherent radio Cerenkov emission resulting from neutrino induced particle showers in ice. The Askaryan Under-Ice Radio Array (AURA) is an Antarctic test array of five detectors intended to study technology and analysis techniques for a future large scale radio Cherenkov neutrino array. One important input parameter for the design of such a future array is the radio frequency attenuation length in the Antarctic ice. In order to measure the ice’s radio frequency attenuation length, radio signals are broadcast from a transmitter and received at the AURA detectors; by comparing the signal strength observed in two different detectors, one can measure the attenuation length. We present a preliminary stability study of extracting power signals from AURA waveforms, in preparation for the radio frequency attenuation length measurement. We define a signal extraction algorithm then proceed to determine under what conditions and to what degree a reliable power signal can be extracted. Applying the algorithm, we demonstrate good linearity for large signals and perform a statistical uncertainty exercise.