A low power consumption radar system for measuring ice thickness and snow/firn accumulation in Antarctica

In order to measure total ice thickness and surface snow accumulation in Antarctica, we have designed and built a surveying system comprising two types of radar. This system is aimed at having low power consumption, low weight/volume and low construction cost. The system has a pulsecompression radar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Uribe, José A., Zamora, Rodrigo, Gacitúa, Guisella, Rivera Ibáñez, Sergio, Ulloa, David
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Antarctic glaciology
Glaciological instruments and methods
Ground-penetrating radar
Polar firn
Radio-echo sounding
Antarctic
Rivera
Union Glacier
West Antarctica
Annals of Glaciology
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3189/2014AoG67A055
https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/130711
Description
Summary:In order to measure total ice thickness and surface snow accumulation in Antarctica, we have designed and built a surveying system comprising two types of radar. This system is aimed at having low power consumption, low weight/volume and low construction cost. The system has a pulsecompression radar to measure ice thickness, and a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FM-CW) radar designed to measure hundreds of meters of surface snow/firn layers with high resolution. The pulsecompression radar operates at 155 MHz, 20MHz of bandwidth; and the FM-CW radar operates from 550 to 900 MHz. The system was tested in December 2010 at Union Glacier (798460 S, 838240 W), West Antarctica, during an oversnow campaign, where Union and other nearby glaciers (Schanz, Schneider and Balish) were covered through 82km of track. Ice thickness of 1540m and snow/firn thickness of 120m were detected in the area. The collected data allowed the subglacial topography, internal ice structure, isochronous and the snow/ice boundary layer to be detected. Here we describe radar electronics, their main features and some of the results obtained during the first test campaign. Further improvements will focus on the adaptation of the system to be implemented on board airplane platforms. Financing Program of Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica de Chile (CONICYT). Andrés Rivera is a Guggenheim fellow.

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