Abstract

Airborne radio-echo sounding (RES) is an established geophysical technique that is used to obtain information about the basal and internal properties of ice sheets. This includes constraints upon: basal hydrology, basal roughness, internal layer structure, and englacial temperature. Extraction of glaciologically-relevant information from RES typically requires integration with electromagnetic and geostatistical methods, which need to be carefully tuned around the radar measurement system and the specific glaciological problem being addressed.

In the first part of the seminar, I will summarise research output from the University of Bristol NERC project: Basal Properties of Greenland. This project aimed to determine ice-sheet scale constraints using Operation Ice Bridge RES data, with a view to inform the lower boundary condition of thermomechanical ice-sheet models. Topics covered include: the basal water distribution and thermal regime of the ice-sheet; and the relationship between subglacial roughness, underlying geology and ice-sheet motion.

In the second part of the seminar, I will give a brief overview of my current research on the extraction of crystal orientation fabric from airborne polarimetric RES data (the POLARIS radar system). This includes a description of phase-correlation methods used to infer fabric asymmetry and cross-validation of the method at the NEEM ice-core.