Advance Technology for Radar Sounding of Polar Ice (ATRS)

Text of NSF award summary

Motivated to address new questions in glacial/geophysical research, we are striving to improve our current capacity for ice- penetrating radar for:

• improved ice column penetration for detection of the subglacial interface through thick and/or warm ice and through highly heterogeneous ice;
• improved internal layer spatial resolution and improved deep layer detection;
• the ability to characterize the subglacial interface and, specifically, to identify the presence of water.

Recent interest in the Martian ice caps and the Jovian icy satellites has stimulated a new design for an ice penetrating radar. A prototype was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (and constructed with the assistance of The University of Kansas) that draws on the best of modern radar technology. We have since acquired that prototype system and and integrated with the high power output stages of our existing TUD-derived radar. We tested the integrated system was tested during the 2001/02 Antarctic field season, targeting hypothesized and established subglacial water bodies in both East and West Antarctica.

The 2001/02 Field Campaign

We selected a variety of sounding targets that would challenge different aspects of the system's performance. Take a tour of a few of them:

• System dynamic range studies from Iceberg B15a
• Spatial resolution (range) and interface characterizaiton studies over a subglacial lake(?) at South Pole
• Interface characterizaiton studies on Ice Stream C
• Spatial resolution (along track) from SAR focusing
• Interface permafrost characterization from the Dry Valleys

Publications

Peters, M.E., D.D. Blankenship, and D.L. Morse, 2004, Analysis techniques for coherent airborne radar sounding: Application to West Antarctic ice streams, J. Geophys. Re., v 110, B06303, doi:10.1029/2004JB03222.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0086316.  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.