An UWB UHF Ice-Penetreating Radar for the Thwaites Melt Project

Rodriguez-Morales, F.; Paden, J.; Escalera Mendoza, A. S.; Hale, R.; Karidi, K. T.; Schroeder, B.; Shang, J.; Talasila, H.; Robinson, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9546-3638; Jordan, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2780-1986; Nicholls, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2188-4509. 2024 An UWB UHF Ice-Penetreating Radar for the Thwaites Melt Project. IGARSS 2024 - 2024 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. 37-40. https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10642054

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.1064205...

Abstract/Summary

As a part of the project "Melting at Thwaites grounding zone and its control on sea level" (MELT), we developed a compact 750-MHz ice-penetrating radar for phase-sensitive measurements to infer basal melt and ice layer displacement using multiple passes. The radar operates with 300-MHz bandwidth and a peak output power of 400 W. It is equipped with a small antenna array designed to fit within the limited space underneath the floor of a Twin Otter aircraft (without out-of-mold-line protuberances). The radar was installed and deployed onboard a Twin Otter airplane from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a part of the ongoing International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC). We conducted multiple radar survey flights during two consecutive austral summer seasons, collecting ~5 TB of raw data. In this paper, we present an overview of the radar system and antenna implementations. We provide a summary of our field operations and present sample data products to illustrate the instrument capabilities to sound ice as thick as ~1,400 m and map internal reflecting horizons near the grounding line of TG with sub-m vertical resolution. We also discuss the utility of our repeat pass data for inferring ice shelf basal melt rates.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10642054
Additional Keywords:	UHF radar sounder, Thwaites Glacier, Accumulation radar, iceshelf melt rates
Date made live:	09 Sep 2024 09:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/537979

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10642054

Additional Keywords:

UHF radar sounder, Thwaites Glacier, Accumulation radar, iceshelf melt rates

Date made live:

09 Sep 2024 09:05 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/537979