Autonomous phase sensitive radar on Sorsdal Glacier 2015-2016

ApRES installation at site S02 Sorsdal Glacier
Installation date: 8th December 2015
Data retrieval: 24th December 2016
Coordinates: 68 degrees 42.424 S, 78 degrees 06.575 E, Elevation: 75 m
Measurement interval: 1 hr
This instrument was installed on the floating section of the Sorsdal Glacier to monitor changes in ice thickness.

ApRES phase-sensitive radar is a low-power, light-weight instrument developed in a collaboration between BAS and University College London. It is a 200-400 MHz FMCW radar, with a 1-second chirp, run by controller. The radar’s transmit aerial and receive aerial are spaced 1.5 meters each side of the electronics box and are all buried. The radar antenna boxes were quickly infiltrated by water making summer data extremely noisy. The equipment eventually failed when the refreezing water snapped a cable connector. Thicknesses were retrieved for the period 2nd March 2016 - 19th June 2016 only.

Files:
*.dat - binary files containing raw data
config.ini - config file containing all radar settings used
AAS4342_ApRES_S02_Thickness.csv - derived timeseries of ice thickness

Uncertainty in the measured ice thickness derives from three main sources:
Inherent resolution of instrument (0.03 m)
Potential mis-identification of basal return (2 m)
Uncertainty in the speed of light in solid ice (1.2% of ice thickness, McNabb et al. 2012)

Software for processing the raw data can be obtained from Dr. Keith Nicholls, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference: Mcnabb, R., Hock, R., O’Neel, S., Rasmussen, L., Ahn, Y., Braun, M., . . . Truffer, M. (2012). Using surface velocities to calculate ice thickness and bed topography: A case study at Columbia Glacier, Alaska, USA. Journal of Glaciology, 58(212), 1151-1164. doi:10.3189/2012JoG11J249