A Mobile, Multichannel, UWB Radar for Potential Ice Core Drill Site Identification in East Antarctica: Development and First Results

• Published in: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Fernando Rodriguez-Morales, David Braaten, Hoang Trong Mai, John Paden, Prasad Gogineni, Jie-Bang Yan, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Shuji Fujita, Kenji Kawamura, Shun Tsutaki, Brice Van Liefferinge, Kenichi Matsuoka, Daniel Steinhage
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2020
• Subjects: Oldest ice core; ultra-wideband (UWB) radar sounding; Ocean engineering; TC1501-1800; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Antarctic; East Antarctica; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; Dome Fuji; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2020.3016287; https://doaj.org/article/80cbc482920b48d5afa42a95297bd814

We developed a high-performance, multichannel, ultra-wideband radar system for measurements of the base and interior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. We designed the radar to be of high power (4000-W peak) yet portable and to be able to operate with 60-MHz bandwidth at a center frequency of 200 MHz, providing high sensitivity and fine vertical resolution relative to current technology. We used the radar to perform extensive measurements as a part of a multinational collaboration. We collected data onboard a tracked vehicle outfitted with an array of high-gain antennas. We sounded 2- to 3-km thick ice near Dome Fuji. Preliminary ice thickness data match those obtained via semicoincident measurements performed with a different surface-based pulse-modulated radar system operated during the same field campaign, as well as previous airborne measurements. In addition, we mapped internal reflection horizons with fine vertical resolution from 300 m below the ice surface to ~100 m above the bed. In this article, we provide a detailed overview of the radar instrument design, implementation, and field measurement setup. We present sample data to illustrate its capabilities and discuss how the data collected with it will be valuable for the assessment of promising drilling sites to recover ice cores that are 0.9-1.5 million years old.