Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been extensively used in glaciology to infer glacier's ice thickness, liquid water content, water drainage pathways, and other properties. The interpretation of such GPR data is not always straightforward and for temperate glaciers, the signal is often affecte...
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Cambridge University Press
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143023000680/type/journal_article |
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| author | Christophe Ogier Dirk-Jan van Manen Hansruedi Maurer Ludovic Räss Marian Hertrich Andreas Bauder Daniel Farinotti |
| author_facet | Christophe Ogier Dirk-Jan van Manen Hansruedi Maurer Ludovic Räss Marian Hertrich Andreas Bauder Daniel Farinotti |
| author_sort | Christophe Ogier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been extensively used in glaciology to infer glacier's ice thickness, liquid water content, water drainage pathways, and other properties. The interpretation of such GPR data is not always straightforward and for temperate glaciers, the signal is often affected by strong scattering and attenuation. It has often been suggested that such effects originate from englacial water inclusions, since water and ice have a large contrast in their di-electric permittivity. To investigate such effects quantitatively, we perform an extensive numerical modeling study of GPR signals. By exploring how different liquid water contents (LWC) and water-inclusions size affect the GPR signal, we show that their effects are much larger than the potential presence of a wet snowpack or a heterogeneous distribution of ice permittivity. In particularly, we show that the presence of such water inclusions is a necessary and sufficient condition for reproducing the typical characteristics of GPR data acquired in the field. Further, we find that for 25 MHz GPR antennas, a bulk LWC $\gtrsim$ 0.2%, associated with decimeters-scale water inclusions already limits bedrock detectability for ice thicknesses $\gtrsim 100$ m. Since these values are typical for Alpine glaciers, they clarify why the quality of GPR data is often poor in such environments. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e62ff71b935949a2b6feb6ab5feed077 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
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| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj-art-e62ff71b935949a2b6feb6ab5feed0772025-08-20T02:33:44ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522023-12-01691874188510.1017/jog.2023.68Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretationChristophe Ogier0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5526-6071Dirk-Jan van Manen1Hansruedi Maurer2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0131-1006Ludovic Räss3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1136-899XMarian Hertrich4Andreas Bauder5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7197-7706Daniel Farinotti6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3417-4570Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandInstitute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandInstitute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandLaboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandInstitute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandLaboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandLaboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandGround penetrating radar (GPR) has been extensively used in glaciology to infer glacier's ice thickness, liquid water content, water drainage pathways, and other properties. The interpretation of such GPR data is not always straightforward and for temperate glaciers, the signal is often affected by strong scattering and attenuation. It has often been suggested that such effects originate from englacial water inclusions, since water and ice have a large contrast in their di-electric permittivity. To investigate such effects quantitatively, we perform an extensive numerical modeling study of GPR signals. By exploring how different liquid water contents (LWC) and water-inclusions size affect the GPR signal, we show that their effects are much larger than the potential presence of a wet snowpack or a heterogeneous distribution of ice permittivity. In particularly, we show that the presence of such water inclusions is a necessary and sufficient condition for reproducing the typical characteristics of GPR data acquired in the field. Further, we find that for 25 MHz GPR antennas, a bulk LWC $\gtrsim$ 0.2%, associated with decimeters-scale water inclusions already limits bedrock detectability for ice thicknesses $\gtrsim 100$ m. Since these values are typical for Alpine glaciers, they clarify why the quality of GPR data is often poor in such environments.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143023000680/type/journal_articleGlacier geophysicsground-penetrating radarice thickness measurements |
| spellingShingle | Christophe Ogier Dirk-Jan van Manen Hansruedi Maurer Ludovic Räss Marian Hertrich Andreas Bauder Daniel Farinotti Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation Journal of Glaciology Glacier geophysics ground-penetrating radar ice thickness measurements |
| title | Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation |
| title_full | Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation |
| title_fullStr | Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation |
| title_short | Ground penetrating radar in temperate ice: englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation |
| title_sort | ground penetrating radar in temperate ice englacial water inclusions as limiting factor for data interpretation |
| topic | Glacier geophysics ground-penetrating radar ice thickness measurements |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143023000680/type/journal_article |
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