Airborne fine-resolution UHF radar: an approach to the study of englacial reflections, firn compaction and ice attenuation rates

This is the published version. Copyright 2015 International Glaciological Society We have built and operated an ultra-wideband UHF pulsed-chirp radar for measuring firn stratigraphy from airborne platforms over the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica. Our analysis found a wide range of capab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Authors: Cameron, Lewis, Gogineni, Sivaprasad, Rodriguez-Morales, Fernando, Panzer, Ben, Stumpf, Theresa, Paden, John D., Leuschen, Carl J.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: International Glaciological Society 2015
Subjects:
Ice shelves
Polar firn
Radio-echo sounding
Remote sensing
Greenland
Range Point
Ross Ice Shelf
West Antarctica
Antarc*
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
Ice Shelf
Ice Shelves
Journal of Glaciology
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1808/18705
https://doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG14J089
Description
Summary:This is the published version. Copyright 2015 International Glaciological Society We have built and operated an ultra-wideband UHF pulsed-chirp radar for measuring firn stratigraphy from airborne platforms over the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica. Our analysis found a wide range of capabilities, including imaging of post firn–ice transition horizons and sounding of shallow glaciers and ice shelves. Imaging of horizons to depths exceeding 600 m was possible in the colder interior regions of the ice sheet, where scattering from the ice surface and inclusions was minimal. The radar's high sensitivity and large dynamic range point to loss tangent variations as the dominant mechanism for these englacial reflective horizons. The radar is capable of mapping interfaces with reflection coefficients as low as –80 dB near the firn–ice transition and as low as –64 dB at depths of 600 m. We found that firn horizon reflectivity strongly mirrored density variance, a result of the near-unity interfacial transmission coefficients. Zones with differing compaction mechanisms were also apparent in the data. We were able to sound many ice shelves and areas of shallow ice. We estimated ice attenuation rates for a few locations, and our attenuation estimates for the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica, appear to agree well with earlier reported results.

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