Short-pulse radar wavelet recovery and resolution of dielectric contrasts within englacial and basal ice of Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A.

Abstract

AbstractWavelets transmitted by short-pulse radar are recovered from continuous profiles and used to determine interfacial dielectric contrasts within the englacial and basal ice at the terminus area of Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A. The field studies were in the ablation region, where radar horizons could, at some point, be identified with interfaces between clear ice and air, water or basal ice, and were performed in early spring before drainage fully developed. The profiles used closely-spaced antennas with bandwidths centered near 50 and 400 MHz. Transmitted wavelets reflected from interfaces of known dielectric contrasts are used to establish a phase reference for other events from interfaces between unknown contrasts. Migration and Fourier-transform filtering are then applied to the profiles and shown to recover these wavelets from diffractions and reflections. Interfacial dielectric contrasts are determined from the relative phase of the wavelets. Near the terminus lake, some basal ice events above 8 m depth are interpreted as voids. Further up-glacier, most englacial events are interpreted as voids, but deeper localized reflectors and horizons to 90 m depth and within the basal zone are interpreted as voids, water or debris. Phase cannot be determined for the basal-substrate transition reflections. Recommendations are made for improving the wavelet recovery process and the quality of GPR migration.