| Summary: | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation An ultra-wideband, airborne radar system is developed to further advance polar region research. The polar regions are the best place to detect and predict future climate due to their sensitivity and responsiveness to climate change. Ice sounding radars can detect ice thickness, basal topography, and englacial layers to help aid in these future predictions. Very-high frequency and ultra-high frequency radar systems have proven capable of providing deep internal layering and bedrock topography measurements. This thesis includes the work done on the design, integration, and testing of such a radar system. The radar is an 8-channel, modular system operating from 170-470 MHz. It is designed to operate from a DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft platform and map near bed layers at 3-3.5 km thick ice. These measurements will provide data for 3D ice-bed topography and basal conditions, long-term accumulation rates, flow dynamics, and ice-shelf melt rates. This data is used to help develop ice models which can reveal more about how the polar regions affect the Earth.
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