Abstract
Abstract. Lakes are abundant throughout the pan-Arctic region. For many of these lakes ice cover lasts for up to two thirds of the year. The frozen cover allows human access to these lakes, which are therefore used for many subsistence and recreational activities, including water harvesting, fishing, and skiing. Safe traveling condition onto lakes may be compromised, however, when, after significant snowfall, the weight of the snow acts on the ice and causes liquid water to spill through weak spots and overflow at the snow-ice interface. Since visual detection of subsnow slush is almost impossible our understanding on overflow processes is still very limited and geophysical methods that allow water and slush detection are desirable. In this study we demonstrate that a commercially available, lightweight 1 GHz, ground penetrating radar system can detect and map extent and intensity of overflow. The strength of radar reflections from wet snow-ice interfaces are at least twice as much in strength than returns from dry snow-ice interface. The presence of overflow also affects the quality of radar returns from the base of the lake ice. During dry conditions we were able to profile ice thickness of up to 1 m, conversely, we did not retrieve any ice-water returns in areas affected by overflow.
Highlights
Shallow lakes and ponds are abundant throughout the panArctic region
We identified two different Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)-snow-ice characteristics that were different between dry-based snowpack and wet-based snowpack
Ice-covered shallow lakes and ponds are ubiquitous during the winter in the Arctic
Summary
Shallow lakes and ponds are abundant throughout the panArctic region. These water bodies can have various origins, including thermokarst, glacial, fluvial, deltaic or structural (Smith et al, 2007; Jones et al, 2011; Arp and Jones, 2009). The surfaces of these lakes typically start to freeze in the fall and remain solid and ice covered until the spring. Ice-covered freshwater lakes in the sub-Arctic have a tangible societal role. Lakes are visited for fishing, harvesting water, and recreational activities such as camping, skidoo travels, skiing and dog mushing
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