Sounding and imaging of fast flowing glaciers and ice-sheet margins

Topography and basal conditions of ice-sheet margins are essential information for improving ice sheet models. Radars for sounding these areas must have extremely high sensitivity to overcome large attenuation losses and array processing capabilities to reduce surface clutter. We developed synthetic-aperture radars (SAR) with large cross-track arrays for sounding ice-sheet margins both on long- and short-range aircraft. We sounded many key areas, including three major outlet glaciers—Jakobshavn, Helheim and Kangerdlussuaq—in Greenland and Antarctica. In this paper, we describe the radar systems and the data collected, present sample results, and discuss improvements being made to further enhance radar performance.