Radar Soundings on the Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island

Abstract

AbstractThe first successful radar echo soundings through glacier ice in Canada were carried out by the Dominion Observatory in 1965 on an outlet glacier of the Penny Ice Cap in Baffin Island. An unmodified 440 MHz SCR-718 radar altimeter was used, of the type that is readily and inexpensively available on the surplus market. The radar soundings were generally in agreement, within the range of the reading accuracy of the oscilloscope (± 15 m), with depths obtained seismically, gravimetrically, and by the electrical resistivity method. The minimum and maximum recorded depths were 45 m and 550 m, respectively. The pip positions on the standard oscilloscope were recorded visually. This recording method was not satisfactory, but for future use the instrument could easily be modified to incorporate a larger oscilloscope with continuous photographic recording. Use of the relatively high carrier frequency of 440 MHz (compared with the more customary frequency of about 35 MHz) allows the use of smaller antennas and results in better resolution of the bedrock surface.