Polar radar for ice sheet measurements

We report on the PRISM research project currently underway at the University of Kansas – a multidisciplinary effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation and NASA. The objective of this project is to develop and deploy an innovative sensor system for measuring key glaciological parameters and studying the acquired data to understand the contributions of polar ice sheets to sea level rise. This project involves research in autonomous vehicles (i.e., rovers), intelligent systems, sounding radars and ice sheet modeling. When completed, we anticipate that the data collected and experience gained will make a substantial contribution to the long-term science goal of predicting ice sheet response to climate change, while advancing fundamental knowledge in the design, implementation and operation of distributed autonomous systems and self-sufficient computing. Keywords-component; polar ice sheets, SAR, sea-level rise; sounding radar, rovers, autonomous systems.