Design of an airborne P-band ice sounding radar

This paper presents the top-level design of an airborne, P-band ice sounding radar under development at the Technical University of Denmark. The ice sounder is intended to help gaining experience with the electromagnetic properties of the Antarctic ice sheet at P-band. A secondary objective is to test new ice sounding techniques, e.g. polarimetry, synthetic aperture processing, and coherent clutter suppression.

A system analysis involving ice scattering models confirms that it is feasible to detect the bedrock through 4 km of ice and to detect deep ice layers. The ice sounder design features a digital signal generator, a microstrip antenna array, a conventional RF-architecture with a central transmitter and two receive channels as well as internal calibration loops.

In 2008 the first data acquisition campaign will take place in Greenland.