ARCTIC Remote Sensing of Permafrost by Ground-Penetrating Radar at Two Airports in Arctic Canada

ABSTRACT. Over a cycle of seasons, ground-penetrating radar studies were carried out at Inuvik and Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories. The two airports are part of the Forward Operating Location (FOL) program of the Department of National Defence and have been slated for significant upgrading of ru...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1990
Subjects:
Key words
Arctic
Northwest Territories
Canada
Inuvik
Rankin Inlet
Global warming
Ice
permafrost
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.568.6303
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic44-S-40.pdf
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT. Over a cycle of seasons, ground-penetrating radar studies were carried out at Inuvik and Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories. The two airports are part of the Forward Operating Location (FOL) program of the Department of National Defence and have been slated for significant upgrading of runways, taxiways and parking aprons. This provided a good opportunity to investigate the xtent of permafrost and its seasonal varia-tion at two locations distributed over a wide geographic area. The study method involved specific and repeated traverses with a Pulse EKKO III ground-penetrating radar unit. The survey was successful in locating massive ice bodies, imaging several existing problem areas beneath runways and mapping the seasonal depth of thaw in permafrost. The study results imply that future monitoring at FOL sites should be continued in light of suggested ground stability problems due to global warming.

Similar Items