Ground-penetrating radar as a tool for characterizing ground ice in the Canadian High Arctic: Implications for future Mars based radar investigations

Statistics – Applications

Scientific paper

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[0702] Cryosphere / Permafrost, [0794] Cryosphere / Instruments And Techniques, [5422] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Ices, [5494] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

On Earth, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is commonly used for the detection of ground ice in permafrost regions preceding infrastructure development and for unveiling paleoclimate conditions. Elsewhere in our solar system, other icy bodies, whether they make up an entire satellite or are intermittent subsurface deposits, are increasingly of scientific interest. This curiosity concerning the origins and nature of this ice is motivated by our drive to understand both the evolution of volatile materials through our solar system, and the climate processes that defined the cold and dry neighbouring Mars we observe today. What are implications for climate and potential for life in the event of discovering segregation, polygon-wedge, buried sea, glacial, or lake ice on another planet? This study is motivated by our desire to determine the properties, and subsequently the nature, of extraterrestrial ice by remote sensing means. We have developed a technique to test the aptitude of high-frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems for applications in the characterization of sub-surface ice deposits. This technique follows from the hypothesis that chemical and bulk properties of the ground ice can be characterized according to the electrical properties of the ice and its inclusions. Field based research followed remote sensing practices, which identified of terrains capable of hosting subsurface ice. At sites in the Canadian High Arctic Islands of Axel Heiberg, Ellesmere, and Devon, surface radar surveys confirmed the existence of ice predicted from remote sensing work, then common offset, common-midpoint and cross-polarimetric surveys over the deposit were collected both atop the active layer and on the ice surface itself. We explored three methods of measuring radar velocity. Of these methods, two follow from modified survey design, and one stems from a geophysical post-processing technique involving the theoretical removal of adverse overburden affects. Following the radar surveys, ice cores were collected from the survey site and analyzed for basic chemical and physical properties. Ultimately, this analysis was used to ground-truth the observed radar velocities. Correlations between the observed radar velocities and the measured physio-chemical properties of the ice are presented and critiqued.

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