Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T11:15:53.448Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radio techniques for the measurement of ice thickness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

S. Evans
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In recent years, phenomena observed in two quite separate fields of study have led to the suggestion that radio waves may propagate through cold ice masses with sufficiently small loss by absorption to permit the thickness to be measured, and some information about the nature of the bottom surface to be derived by radar. This article describes first some work by the United States Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory arising out of spurious echoes noticed on radio altimeters (ground clearance indicators) carried by aircraft flying in the polar regions. Afterwards it reviews work at the Scott Polar Research Institute where unexpected phenomena on some IGY ionosondes operated in the Antarctic have led to the development of a radio instrument specifically to measure ice thickness.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 11 , Issue 73 , January 1963 , pp. 406 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cook, J. C. (1960). Proposed monocycle pulse VHF radar for airborne ice and snow measurement. Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Part I (Communications and Electronics), Vol. 79, p. 588–94.Google Scholar
Evans, S. (1961). Polar ionospheric spread echoes and the radio frequency properties of ice shelves. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 66, No. 12, p. 4137–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gintsburg, M. A. (1960). Determination of the thickness of a layer of ice by radar methods [Opredeleniye tolshchiny sloya l'da radiolokatsionnym metodom]. Isvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR. Seriya Geofizicheskaya, No. 6, p. 872–74.Google Scholar
Rudakov, V. N. and Bogorodskty, V. V. (1960). Problems of measuring glacier thickness by electromagnetic methods [K voprosu ob izmerenii tolshchiny lednikov elektromagnitnymi metodami]. Zhurnal Tekhnicheskoy Fiziki, Vol. 30, p. 82–89.Google Scholar
Steenson, B. O. (1951). Radar Methods for the Exploration of Glaciers. Unpublished thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.Google Scholar
Watte, A. H. and Schmidt, S. J. (1962). Gross errors in height indication from pulsed radar altimeters operating over thick ice or snow. Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, Vol. 50, p. 1516–20.Google Scholar
Yoshino, T. (1961). Radio wave propagation on the ice cap. Antarctic Record, No. 11, Ministry of Education, Tokyo, Japan, p. 948–53.Google Scholar