Title
Advanced Multifrequency Radar Instrumentation for Polar Research
Abstract
This paper presents a radar sensor package specifically developed for wide-coverage sounding and imaging of polar ice sheets from a variety of aircraft. Our instruments address the need for a reliable remote sensing solution well-suited for extensive surveys at low and high altitudes and capable of making measurements with fine spatial and temporal resolution. The sensor package that we are presenting consists of four primary instruments and ancillary systems with all the associated antennas integrated into the aircraft to maintain aerodynamic performance. The instruments operate simultaneously over different frequency bands within the 160 MHz-18 GHz range. The sensor package has allowed us to sound the most challenging areas of the polar ice sheets, ice sheet margins, and outlet glaciers; to map near-surface internal layers with fine resolution; and to detect the snow-air and snow-ice interfaces of snow cover over sea ice to generate estimates of snow thickness. In this paper, we provide a succinct description of each radar and associated antenna structures and present sample results to document their performance. We also give a brief overview of our field measurement programs and demonstrate the unique capability of the sensor package to perform multifrequency coincidental measurements from a single airborne platform. Finally, we illustrate the relevance of using multispectral radar data as a tool to characterize the entire ice column and to reveal important subglacial features.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1109/TGRS.2013.2266415
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions  
Keywords
Field
DocType
aircraft,glaciology,remote sensing by radar,sea ice,snow,advanced multifrequency radar instrumentation,aircraft,near surface internal layers,polar ice sheet imaging,polar research,radar sensor package,remote sensing,sea ice,snow cover,snow-air interface,snow-ice interface,spatial resolution,subglacial features,temporal resolution,wide coverage sounding,Airborne radar,cryospheric remote sensing,radio echo sounding
Radar,Radar engineering details,Sea ice concentration,Sea ice,Space-based radar,Radioglaciology,Remote sensing,Wave radar,3D radar,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
52
5
0196-2892
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
10
1.25
10
Authors
19