Characteristics of the internal radio echoes in the Antarctic ice sheet using a mobile VHF radio echo sounder

We developed a snowmobile-borne 179-MHz radar for radio-echo sounding of the Antarctic ice sheet, aiming at measuring ice of more than 3,000 m in thickness and its internal structure. The field observation was carried out with this radar around Dome-F and along the over-snow traverse route from the coast near Syowa Station to Dome-F, a distance of about 1,000 km. The bedrock topography was successfully measured under ice sheets thicker than 3,500 m, and the performance of the radar exceeded our expectations. The internal radio-echoes reflected were found to be strongly polarized at 14 points along the route. In addition, a good correlation was found between the measured surface flow vectors and the orientation dependence of the attenuation.