Autonomous FMCW radar survey of Antarctic shear zone

Author

Koh, Gary ; Lever, James H. ; Arcone, Steven A. ; Marshall, Hans-Peter ; Ray, Laura E.

Author_Institution

Eng. R&D Center, Cold Regions Res. & Eng. Lab., US Army, Hanover, NH, USA

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

Radar survey of the Antarctic shear zone was conducted using an ultra-wideband (2-10 GHz) frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. The radar was mounted on a sled and pulled by a robot that was specifically designed to operate in a harsh polar environment. Our FMCW radar had good penetration through Antarctic snow and we observed snow stratigraphy to a depth of 20 m. The radar images also revealed multiple crevasses in the shear zone. Our results demonstrate that autonomous survey using high frequency radar is feasible and safe approach for detecting hidden crevasses.

Keywords

glaciology; hydrological techniques; remote sensing by radar; snow; stratigraphy; surveying; Antarctic shear zone; Antarctic snow; autonomous survey; frequency modulated continuous wave radar; radar survey; snow stratigraphy; Antarctica; Bandwidth; Frequency; Ground penetrating radar; Radar antennas; Radar detection; Radar imaging; Robots; Snow; Ultra wideband technology; Antarctica; Crevasse; FMCW radar; robot;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), 2010 13th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Lecce

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4604-9

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-4605-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICGPR.2010.5550174

Filename

5550174