Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounding of Jakobshavn Isbræ and its catchment

Glaciers and ice sheets play a significant role in climate research due to their potential effect on sea level rise. Scientists modeling ice sheets are currently limited by the lack of data for key study areas. One of the most important parameters controlling glacier flow is bed topography. For this reason, over the past five years the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) has developed a series of airborne ice penetrating radar systems to aid in mapping bed topography. In 2008, CReSIS collected airborne radar data over a 320 km × 160 km grid in the Jakobshavn catchment, West Greenland, using a Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder. This data grid was processed using a synthetic aperture algorithm to perform along track migration. The resulting data set was loaded into Seismic Micro-Technology´s Kingdom Suite Software package. The bed return, as well as several internal layers, was interpreted in order to produce a map for glacier modeling applications. We were able to image the main Jakobshavn Isbrse channel; in addition two tributary channels were discovered. The internal layer interpretation reveals evidence that ice flow within the catchment of Jakobshavn Isbrse differs significantly from what is predicted by most models.