EAGER: Community-Driven Ice Penetrating Radar Systems for Observing Complex Ice-Sheet Thermal Structure and Flow

了解冰层结构、深度、内部速度和基本条件是了解格陵兰岛和南极洲当前和未来冰川和冰盖行为的关键。大多数无线电冰川学研究项目仅限于感兴趣区域中已经存在的机载冰穿透雷达(IPR)数据。收集新的知识产权数据是一个漫长而缓慢的过程，通常远远超出了各个研究小组的范围，特别是在资源密集型的南极冰川学研究中。这项提议旨在实地测试和验证两种社区驱动的仪器，它们有助于弥补南极研究中的这一差距：雪地摩托拖曳雷达以及无人机(无人驾驶飞行器)系统。这两个系统都基于一个通用的软件控制系统，并共享相同的代码和后处理工具。作为这项提议的一部分，这个代码将在开放源码许可下提供给其他研究人员使用和适应，以及使用商业部件创建兼容硬件设置的说明，以便他们能够以更高的容量和更低的成本研究冰川和冰盖。雪地摩托拖曳雷达将是一种多频率、极化线性调频雷达系统，旨在照亮冰床界面的热、材料和粗糙度特性。游隼无人机系统是一种线性调频雷达，带宽为56 MHz，内置在一架小型固定翼无人驾驶飞机上，可以装在一个鹈鹕盒子里，用于快速小规模调查。这些系统将要测量的变量是预测南极冰盖未来行为的关键观测数据。该项目为期两年，包括计划在格陵兰岛顶峰站进行的两个季节的实地测试，原因是需要在厚而冷的冰盖上进行测试，以及与南极洲相比，在北极支持仪器测试的成本和风险较低。田野季节之间的时间将用于启动或继续与研究人员进行对话，研究人员有兴趣将我们的仪器纳入未来的实地工作，或将我们的核心雷达系统改造成新的仪器。这将使我们有机会根据这一反馈开发新的能力，并在第二个实地赛季进行相关的系统测试。在第二个野外赛季之后，将预留一段时间用于开发详细的文档和准备代码和系统的公开发布。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding ice structure, depth, internal velocity, and basal conditions is key to understanding current and future glacier and ice sheet behavior in Greenland and Antarctica. Most radio glaciology research projects are limited to whatever airborne ice-penetrating radar (IPR) data happens to already exist in the area of interest. Collecting new IPR data is a long and slow process, usually well outside the scope of individual research teams, especially in resource-intensive Antarctic glaciology research. This proposal seeks to field-test and validate two community-driven instruments that help address this gap in Antarctic research: a snowmobile-towed radar as well as a UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicle) system. Both systems are based off a common software control system and share the same code and post-processing tools. As part of this proposal, this code will be made available under an open-source license for other researchers to use and adapt, along with instructions for creating compatible hardware setups from commercially available parts, in order for them to be able to study glaciers and ice sheets at higher capacity and lower cost.The snowmobile-towed radar will be a multi-frequency, polarimetric chirped radar system designed to illuminate thermal, material, and roughness properties at the ice-bed interface. The PEREGRINE UAV system is a chirped radar with 56 MHz of bandwidth built into a small fixed-wing uncrewed aircraft that packs away into a single Pelican case for rapid small-scale surveys. The variables to be measured by these systems are critical observational data for projecting future behavior of the Antarctic ice sheet. The project spans two years and incorporates two seasons of field testing planned for Summit Station, Greenland, due to the need to test on a thick, cold ice sheet as well as the lower cost and risk of supporting instrument testing in the Arctic compared to Antarctica. The period between the field seasons will be used to initiate or continue conversations with researchers interested in incorporating our instruments into future fieldwork or adapting our core radar system into new instruments. This will give us an opportunity to develop new capabilities in response to this feedback and conduct relevant system tests during the second field season. A period after the second field season is reserved for the development of detailed documentation and preparation for the open release of code and systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.