A ground-based radar for measuring vertical strain rates and time-varying basal melt rates in ice sheets and shelves
The ApRES (autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder) instrument is a robust, lightweight and relatively inexpensive radar that has been designed to allow long-term, unattended monitoring of ice-shelf and ice-sheet thinning. We describe the instrument and demonstrate its capabilities and limitat...
| Published in: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
International Glaciological Society
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/512423/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/512423/1/Nicholls.pdf https://doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG15J073 |
| Summary: | The ApRES (autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder) instrument is a robust, lightweight and relatively inexpensive radar that has been designed to allow long-term, unattended monitoring of ice-shelf and ice-sheet thinning. We describe the instrument and demonstrate its capabilities and limitations by presenting results from three trial campaigns conducted in different Antarctic settings. Two campaigns were ice sheet-based – Pine Island Glacier and Dome C – and one was conducted on the Ross Ice Shelf. The ice-shelf site demonstrates the ability of the instrument to collect a time series of basal melt rates; the two grounded ice applications show the potential to recover profiles of vertical strain rate and also demonstrate some of the limitations of the present system. |
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