Electronic components and apparatus for use in polar field operations

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Authors: Nottarp, K., Serson, H., Dummer, G. W. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1966
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Ross Ice Shelf; Greenland; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400055285; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400055285

During the 1959 activities of the International Glaciological Expedition to Greenland, tellurometer measurements of the geodetic traverse over the ice sheet were found to contain systematic errors of the order of 1 part in 10 5 in distance measurement, and there was a big loss in instrument range. The origin of these difficulties may lie in the large temperature gradient in the air close to the snow surface, or in the scattering of the signal from the rough surface, or in the propagation characteristics in the dielectric boundary layer between snow and air (Nottarp, 1962). We are concerned here with the practical solution to the difficulty—the use of a high antenna mounting—and with other modifications made to the instruments for use on the Ross Ice Shelf Survey, 1962–63.